CAIRO — A renegade militia seeking to storm its way into Libya’s capital battled for control of the international airport Saturday in a showdown that threatened to spill into bloody urban combat in the streets of Tripoli.
Fighters loyal to warlord Khalifa Hifter said they had overrun the airport on the southern edge of the city. But forces for Libya’s U.N.-backed government mounted a counterattack and it remained unclear which side held the airfield.
The airport has been closed since it suffered widespreaddamage during battles between rival groups in 2014. But it would be a symbolic blow to the government if the site fell to Hifter, who could use it as a key staging ground for further advances.
Hifter’s militia is aligned with a separate administration based in eastern Libya. The country, rich in oil and gas reserves, has been split into rival regions for years as the United Nations and others tried to hammer out a peace deal and set a road map for elections.
Hifter’s offensive could usher in the most significant escalation of violence since the toppling of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi in 2011. Hifter was a general in Gaddafi’s army but defected and spent years living in Northern Virginia. He returned to Libya to take part in the revolution against Gaddafi’s rule.
Earlier Saturday, government warplanes targets Hifter’s militiamen in attempts to stop his push toward Tripoli. Human rights activists, meanwhile, warned that civilians could be caught in the middle if the fighting escalates for control of Tripoli.
The warplanes bombed positions of Gen. Khalifa Hifter’s self-described Libyan National Army that is south of Tripoli, prompting the warlord to declare that his forces would shoot down any aircraft flying over western Libya, local media reported. Tripoli residents on social media described hearing fighter jets passing over the city.
[Who is Khalifa Hifter and why is he marching on Tripoli?]
Saturday’s aerial assault came a day after Hifter’s forces clashed with militias aligned with the United Nations and the Western-backed Government of National Accord.
Hifter’s forces were stopped from advancing, and about 100 of his fighters were captured by the pro-government militias, local media reports said.
On Thursday, Hifter ordered his forces to seize control of Tripoli following their takeover of Gharyan, a town roughly 60 miles south of the capital. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres personally intervened in a bid to stop the fighting but failed Friday to convince Hifter to halt his offensive.
Human Rights Watch on Saturday raised concerns of possible abuses happening if fighting erupted inside the capital. Activists accuse Hifter’s fighters of committing numerous human rights violations, including summary executions, indiscriminate attacks on civilians and arbitrary detentions.
Pro-government militias also have a track record of abuses against civilians, the watchdog group said.
“Whenever rival armed forces clash in Libyan cities, it’s civilians who suffer the most,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the group’s Middle East and North Africa director, said in a statement. “All sides need to abide by the laws and minimize civilian harm.”
After meeting Friday with Hifter in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, Guterres said in a tweet that he was leaving Libya “with a heavy heart and deeply concerned.”
Hifter told Guterres that his offensive on Tripoli will continue, according to the al-Arabiya television network.
[Watch: Migrants face abuse at hands of Libya’s coast guard]
Hifter’s attempted power grab also risked setting off a fresh wave of people heading toward Libya’s borders or attempting to reach Europe over dangerous sea routes in the Mediterranean.
Fearing a spillover of refugees, neighboring Tunisia has tightened control over its border, said its Defense Ministry. The U.N. Security Council has also taken up the issue.
Late Friday, the U.N. Security Council called on Hifter to pull back his forces, warning that further advances would jeopardize any hopes for stability in Libya. “There can be no military solution to the conflict,” said Germany’s U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, the president of the council, reading a statement from the body.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/libyan-warplanes-target-forces-of-renegade-commander-on-tripoli-outskirts/2019/04/06/067cd318-5867-11e9-aa83-504f086bf5d6_story.html
2019-04-06 17:48:45Z
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