Members of Libyan internationally recognised government forces are seen in Al-Swani area in Tripoli, Libya April 18, 2019. Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah
TRIPOLI: Libya’s UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) yesterday claimed to have wrested the strategic Tamanhint airbase from forces loyal to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.
On its official Facebook page, the GNA’s Southern Protection Force said it had taken control of the airbase, which is located some 30km east of the city of Sabha.
The reported gain comes amid a counteroffensive by pro-GNA forces aimed at stopping an ongoing campaign by Haftar to capture Tripoli, where the GNA is headquartered.
Following two weeks of intermittent fighting on the capital’s outskirts that have left scores dead, Haftar’s forces — affiliated with a rival government based in eastern Libya— have so far failed to capture the capital.
Libya has remained beset by turmoil since long-serving leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed in a bloody Nato-backed uprising in 2011.
Since then, the country has seen the emergence of two rival seats of power: one in eastern Libya, to which Haftar is affiliated, and another in Tripoli, which enjoys UN recognition.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Libya envoy warned of “a widening conflagration” in the North African country, saying international divisions had encouraged strongman Khalifa Haftar to launch his assault on Tripoli.
But for now, Ghassan Salame said in an exclusive interview, there was “deadlock” in fighting south of the capital between Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) and the internationally recognised government. “After the very first successes of the Libyan National Army two weeks ago, we are witnessing a military deadlock,” he said.
Fighting broke out on April 4 when Haftar and his LNA, based in the country’s east, launched an offensive to take Tripoli, the western seat of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).
