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Reuters
BENGHAZI
Eastern Libyan forces on Monday mounted an air strike on the central city of Sirte held by the internationally recognised government, an official and residents said, widening a conflict engulfing the capital Tripoli.
Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) force has been trying since April to take Tripoli, which is held by the internationally recognised government, with a ground campaign supported by air strikes.
The campaign has displaced more than 120,000 people in Tripoli alone, killed hundreds of civilians, and risks disrupting oil supplies from the country in chaos since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
There have been LNA-claimed strikes in recent days on Sirte, some 450km (280 miles) by road east of Tripoli, but mainly on the outskirts, residents said.
Haftar, who is allied to an eastern parallel administration, might be trying to shift the frontline from Sirte away from Tripoli where he has been unable to breach the city’s defences and even lost his main forward base in Gharyan, said Emad Badi, a Libya researcher.
Such a move would also pre-empt attacks on the main LNA supply base in Jufra, a central oasis, which the Tripoli forces have attacked by air, said Badi, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute.
BENGHAZI
Eastern Libyan forces on Monday mounted an air strike on the central city of Sirte held by the internationally recognised government, an official and residents said, widening a conflict engulfing the capital Tripoli.
Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) force has been trying since April to take Tripoli, which is held by the internationally recognised government, with a ground campaign supported by air strikes.
The campaign has displaced more than 120,000 people in Tripoli alone, killed hundreds of civilians, and risks disrupting oil supplies from the country in chaos since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
There have been LNA-claimed strikes in recent days on Sirte, some 450km (280 miles) by road east of Tripoli, but mainly on the outskirts, residents said.
Haftar, who is allied to an eastern parallel administration, might be trying to shift the frontline from Sirte away from Tripoli where he has been unable to breach the city’s defences and even lost his main forward base in Gharyan, said Emad Badi, a Libya researcher.
Such a move would also pre-empt attacks on the main LNA supply base in Jufra, a central oasis, which the Tripoli forces have attacked by air, said Badi, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute.
