Drone strike near Tripoli kills seven fighters loyal to Haftar

At least seven fighters loyal to Libyan National Army forces commanded by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar were killed in a drone strike in southern Tripoli, a military source said.

The eastern-based LNA shot down a drone yesterday in Tripoli’s southern suburb of Ain Zara, it said without elaborating.

In the latest turmoil since the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, Field Marshal Haftar’s LNA has been unable to take Tripoli from the internationally recognised government, despite intense clashes that have displaced tens of thousands of civilians.

The United Nations mission in Libya said in a tweet on Saturday that it was “doing its utmost with all local and foreign actors to avoid military escalation and to ensure the protection of civilians”.

Videos circulated on social media in recent days, some by a pro-Haftar television channel, showed columns of LNA military vehicles moving towards the south of the capital. The footage could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, Libya’s national oil company has suspended operations at the country’s largest oilfield over the “unlawful” closure of a pipeline valve.

The National Oil Corporation announced the move late on Saturday without saying who was behind the closure of the pipeline linking the field to the port of Zawiya, on the Mediterranean coast. It says the line was blocked late on Friday.

The Sharara oilfield, which produces about 290,000 barrels a day, is controlled by forces loyal to Field Marshal Haftar.