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April 9, 2019

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Rebels advance on Libyan capital

Source: Agencies | 00:00 UTC+8 April 9, 2019 | Print Edition

A WARPLANE attacked Tripoli鈥檚 only functioning airport yesterday as eastern forces advancing on the Libyan capital disregarded international appeals for a truce in the latest of a cycle of warfare since Muammar Gaddafi鈥檚 fall in 2011.

Casualties were mounting in fighting that also threatens to disrupt oil supplies, fuel migration to Europe and wreck UN plans for an election to end rivalries between parallel administrations in the country鈥檚 east and west.

The eastern Libyan National Army forces of Khalifa Haftar 鈥 a former general in Gaddafi鈥檚 army 鈥 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.

Matiga airport, in an eastern suburb, was bombed and closed, authorities said. That left Misrata airport, 200 kilometers to the east down the coast, as the closest option for Tripoli residents.

Haftar鈥檚 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 airstrikes on the south of the city as it seeks to advance along a road from a disused former international airport.

Witnesses said yesterday afternoon that the LNA had lost control of the old airport and withdrawn from positions on the airport road.

Forces allied to the Tripoli administration were seen inside the airport, while clashes with the eastern forces were raging south of the airport, residents said.

On Sunday evening, LNA forces had moved up from the airport coming as close as 11km to the city center before retreating, residents said.

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.

A Reuters correspondent in the city center could hear gunfire in the distance southward.

Serraj has run Tripoli since 2016 as part of a UN-brokered deal boycotted by Haftar. His Tripoli government has reported 11 deaths in the last few days, without saying on which side.

The United Nations said 2,800 people had been displaced by the clashes and many more could flee, though some were trapped.

鈥淭he United Nations continues to call for a temporary humanitarian truce to allow for the provision of emergency services and the voluntary passage of civilians, including those wounded, from areas of conflict,鈥 it said in a statement.

UN envoy Ghassan Salame met Serraj in Tripoli yesterday to discuss 鈥渢his critical and difficult juncture.鈥

The violence has jeopardized a UN plan for an April 14-16 conference to plan elections and end anarchy that has prevailed since Gaddafi was toppled. As well as the UN, the European Union, the US and the G7 have urged a cease-fire, a halt to Haftar鈥檚 advance and return to talks.

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