Battle rages for Libya's capital, airport bombed

World
Europe

A warplane attacked Tripoli's only functioning airport on Monday as eastern forces advancing on the Libyan capital disregarded international appeals for a truce in the latest cycle of warfare.

The UN condemned the air strike at Mitiga International Airport, where flights were suspended and passengers were evacuated. So far, no casualties have been reported yet.

Forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar, a commander of the eastern forces trying to seize the capital, were blamed for the strike.

A spokesman for Haftar's forces confirmed the strike, saying his force had not targeted civilian planes, only a MiG parked at Mitiga.

In recent days, casualties were mounting in fighting that also threatens to disrupt oil supplies and wreck UN plans for an election to end rivalries between parallel administrations in the country's east and west.

A crew member stands outside the Mitiga International Airport after flights were cancelled following an air strike in Tripoli, April 8, 2019. /VCG Photo

The eastern Libyan National Army (LNA) forces of Khalifa Haftar said 19 of its soldiers died in recent days as they closed in on the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.

A spokesman for the Tripoli-based Health Ministry said fighting in the south of the capital had killed at least 25 people, including fighters and civilians, and wounded 80.

Haftar's LNA, which backs the eastern administration in Benghazi, took the oil-rich south of Libya earlier this year before advancing fast through largely unpopulated desert regions toward Tripoli.

Seizing the capital, however, is a much bigger challenge. The LNA has conducted air strikes on the south of the city as it seeks to advance along a road from a disused former international airport.

It's said that the LNA had lost control of the old airport and withdrawn from positions on the airport road on Monday afternoon.

Heavily damaged buildings in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, April 8, 2019. /VCG Photo

Machine guns on pickups

The government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, 59, is seeking to block the LNA with the help of allied armed groups who have rushed to Tripoli from Misrata in pickup trucks fitted with machine guns.

Serraj has run Tripoli since 2016 as part of a UN-brokered deal boycotted by Haftar.

UN envoy Salame met Serraj in Tripoli on Monday to discuss "ways the UN can assist with this critical and difficult juncture," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York.

Dujarric said 3,400 people had been displaced by violence in and around Tripoli, emergency services had been blocked from reaching casualties and civilians, and electricity lines had been damaged.

Fighters from a Misrata armed group prepare their ammunition before heading to the outskirts of Tripoli, April 8, 2019. /VCG Photo

"We're calling for a temporary humanitarian truce to allow for the provision of emergency services and a voluntary passage of civilians, including those wounded, from the areas of conflict," Dujarric said.

The violence has jeopardized a UN plan for an April 14-16 conference to plan elections and end anarchy that has prevailed since the toppling of Gaddafi.

Meanwhile, the European Union, United States and G7 bloc have all urged a ceasefire, a halt to Haftar's advance and return to negotiations.

(Top image: Planes at Mitiga International Airport after it was closed following an air strike in Tripoli, April 8, 2019. /CGTN Photo)

Source(s): Reuters