Tripoli campaign to continue despite ‘losses’
TRIPOLI: The military commander of eastern Libya-based forces said that they will continue fighting forces loosely allied with the Un-supported government in Tripoli, even though his campaign has suffered setbacks in recent weeks.
Khalifa Hafter, commander of the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, has been waging a campaign for over a year trying to capture the capital. The military tide has been reversed in recent weeks, and his forces lost several towns and a key airbase.
Hafter’s side controls the country’s east and most of the south, while the Un-supported government controls areas in the west, including Tripoli.
In a two-minute audio speech addressed to his forces, Hafter said they “will fight and fight” against what he called “Turkish colonialism.”
Turkey is aiding the embattled government in Tripoli. It has recently stepped up its military support with armoured drones, air defences and Syrian mercenaries with links to extremist groups.
“To our brave officers and soldiers, you are fighting a holy war that is open to all fronts, a comprehensive war in which there is nothing but victory,” Hafter said in the speech. “Every Turkish solider, mercenary sent by (Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan to Libya and every traitor who has allowed the occupier to return is a target of our armed forces.”
Col. Mohamed Gnounou, a spokesman for the Tripoli-allied forces, said on Saturday that they seized two military camps on the outskirts of Tripoli that Hafter’s forces had captured at the beginning of their campaign last year.
Hafter’s side said its fighters were merely completing a retreat of 2 to 3 kilometres from Tripoli’s southern reaches to allow families to visit each other safely in celebration of the Eid Al Fitr holiday. It also said they had retaken the Yarmouk military camp and killed “large number of the militias” and captured a dozen others. It said they shot down two Turkish drones over southern Tripoli that were targeting their forces. The claims of the two sides could not be independently verified.
The US ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, called on Saturday for a halt to the “destabilising flow” of Russian and other foreign military equipment and mercenaries into Libya.
“The needless offensive against Tripoli must end so all foreign forces can depart and Libyan leaders who are prepared to lay down their weapons can come together in peaceful dialogue on the issues that divide them,” Norland said during a phone call with Tripolibased Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj.