Libya militiamen bomb homes in Tripoli

CAIRO — Eastern Libya forces trying to capture the country’s capital bombed civilian homes Friday, killing at least two people, health authorities in the U.N.-supported government in Tripoli said.

The intensified bombardment of the city by forces under the command of Khalifa Hifter took place just days after a unilateral cease-fire was declared for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The Tripoli government rejected the overture, blaming the eastern forces for sabotaging past peace efforts.

The Health Ministry in Tripoli also said that three civilians, including a woman, were wounded when rockets crashed through their roofs in the Zinata neighborhood, burying them under the rubble.

Hifter’s Libyan Arab Armed Forces opened an assault on Tripoli last year, backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia. For months his forces, bolstered by shipments of powerful missiles, jets and drones, held an advantage over the coalition of fractious militias defending the beleaguered Tripoli government. But Turkey’s escalating military support for the U.N.-supported administration has recently shifted momentum of the conflict.

Western forces have thwarted Hifter’s advances, recaptured coastal cities near the Tunisian border, attacked Hifter’s key western air base and tightened their siege on his stronghold of Tarhuna. On Friday, the forces’ Facebook page reported aiming at least three airstrikes at fuel tankers supplying Hifter’s forces and a bus full of militiamen.