Bombardment rocks Tripoli, water supplies at risk
TRIPOLI: A bombardment shook Tripoli on Sunday as the eastern-based forces of General Khalifa Haftar fought overnight for new territory in the southern suburbs after losing ground recently.
Adding to the misery of Tripoli residents, the main water supplier to northwest Libya said armed men in the south had stormed one of its facilities, reducing supply.
“My father said we should be ready to leave at any moment ... the fighting last night was heavier than at any time before,” said a resident of Abu Salim district, near a frontline.
“We would leave to survive, but where can we go? ... We will be on the street. It’s hopeless,” the resident added by phone.
Gen Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) has been trying to capture Tripoli for 13 months, but Turkish military aid this year for the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) has helped it regain some ground.
The LNA, backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, last week announced a new air campaign, but most bombardment since then has been through artillery.
Last month the pro-GNA forces recaptured a string of towns in the northwest from the LNA, re-establishing their control between Tripoli and the Tunisian border.
They have also made two attempts to seize the LNA’s strategic al-Watiya airbase, but have been repelled, and have moved towards the LNA’s main northwestern stronghold of Tarhouna. An LNA military source said late on Saturday that the fighting was the fiercest so far. Eastern forces briefly took some ground in Abu Salim.
Tripoli residents described the bombardment as the worst so far after weeks of fighting as the GNA attempts to end Gen Haftar’s campaign to seize the capital.
Mitiga, the only functioning airport in the Libyan capital, was targeted by rockets for a second day after shelling on Saturday destroyed fuel tanks and sprayed shrapnel across a passenger jet being readied for take-off.
LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari said on Sunday that it was targeting the airport because Turkey was using it as a military base, something the GNA has denied.
The UN Libya mission condemned what it called “indiscriminate attacks”, which it said were mostly attributable to pro-LNA forces. It said last month that the LNA was responsible for four-fifths of civilian deaths in the first quarter of 2020. Mismari said the UN mission had overlooked GNA shelling of areas the LNA held.
Turkey said on Sunday it would regard Gen Haftar’s forces as “legitimate targets” if attacks on its interests continued.
Water pressure in Tripoli was already starting to decline on Sunday afternoon after the Great Man-Made River Project, the main water utility, said one of its power stations in the south had been stormed by armed men.