Fighting rages in Libya

WARPLANES STRIKE AIRPORT IN LIBYA CAPITAL AGAIN

Warplanes again bombed a Libyan military air base Tuesday that until a day earlier was Tripoli's only functioning airport, shortly after the Islamist-backed prime minister said his government was at war.

Late Monday, Prime Minister Omar al-Hassi said the Cabinet will now adopt "a policy of confrontation and war," comments directed at his rivals in Libya's internationally recognized government based in the country's east.

"Now, we face an enemy that has plenty of weapons and support from abroad, and we are facing more than one country supplying it with arms," he said.

Al-Hassi also sharply criticized the United Nations envoy to Libya, saying that Bernardino Leon "doesn't see the reality" of the situation.

The Monday-Tuesday bombings of Matiga air base - held by Islamist-allied militias - appear to be part of efforts by the elected government to retake the capital after the Islamist-allied militias seized it.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, said the morning raids did not result in casualties or damage to the airport. They said several homes near the base were damaged and the attack caused panic at a nearby school.

Two people were killed in Monday's airstrikes on the same base, and an airport official said that three missiles hit the military airstrip's runway.

The base had been used for civilian purposes since last summer when Tripoli International Airport was destroyed. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to brief reporters.

A body affiliated to al-Hassi government later issued a statement accusing Gen. Khalifa Hifter - who led the military campaign against Islamist militias in the eastern city of Benghazi - of being behind the airstrikes.

In a statement issued Tuesday, a spokesman for the United Nations secretary-general said Ban Ki-moon was "deeply concerned" by the recent escalation of violence, including the air strikes. He also expressed full confidence in his envoy, Leon, and encouraged Libyans to resolve the tensions through dialogue.


Source : Sapa-AP /kn
Date : 26 Nov 2014 00:10
 
19 LIBYA SOLDIERS KILLED BY ISLAMIST MILITIA: MILITARY SOURCE

At least 19 soldiers were killed in clashes with Islamist militia on Thursday in eastern Libya, where an oil tank also caught fire in separate fighting, officials said.

A military source said the soldiers were killed in attacks launched by the Fajr Libya movement in Sirte, while the oil tank at the port of Al-Sidra was hit by rocket fire in other clashes.


Source : Sapa-AFP /gm
Date : 25 Dec 2014 17:30
 
FIRST AIR STRIKES HIT LIBYA'S MILITIA-HELD MISRATA

Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognised government carried out their first air strikes on Sunday against the country's militia-held third city of Misrata, a spokesman said.

Colonel Ahmed Mesmari said the raids were a response to a renewed attempt early Sunday by the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militia to seize the key Al-Sidra oil export terminal.

Residents said the strikes targeted a flying school close to Misrata airport, the port and a steel plant.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Mesmari said the strikes took place after Fajr Libya launched an air raid on Al-Sidra using a Mig-23 jet that took off from the aviation school in Misrata.

"That is why we targeted it and other positions of the militia," he said.

The UN mission in Libya, UNSMIL, issued a statement condemning the air strikes, warning that failure to take steps "towards de-escalation" will lead to "all-out war" in Libya.

"This cycle of violence... if continued, will lead the country to chaos and all-out war," it said, urging the warring sides to take "courageous steps" to end the fighting.

Fajr Libya has been trying to take Al-Sidra and the nearby Ras Lanuf terminal since Thursday when it killed at least 22 soldiers in a surprise attack by speedboat.

Seven oil storage tanks at Al-Sidra were set on fire as a result of the fighting.

On Sunday firefighters managed to extinguish four of the fires, an oil official said, adding that blazes still raged in three tanks.

Since clashes first erupted around the export terminals on December 13, Libya's oil production has dropped to less than 350,000 barrels per day compared with 800,000 previously, industry experts say.

More than three years after dictator Moamer Kadhafi was toppled and killed in a NATO-backed revolt, Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and has rival parliaments and governments.

As well as Misrata, the capital Tripoli and second city Benghazi are largely in the hands of militias, and the internationally recognised government has taken refuge in the remote east.

Elsewhere, a Tripoli court on Sunday delayed yet again the trial of some 40 members of Kadhafi's ousted regime, including his son Seif al-Islam, a judicial source said.

The accused, who also include Kadhafi's former spy chief Abdullah Senussi, have been charged over their roles in suppressing the 2011 uprising that eventually toppled Kadhafi.

All of the defendants are accused of murder, kidnapping, complicity in incitement to rape, plunder, sabotage, embezzling public funds and acts harmful to national unity.

Only 31 of the accused appeared in court on Sunday, including Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, Kadhafi's last premier, an aide to the prosecutor said.

Seif al-Islam was not present as he has been held since his capture by rebels in November 2011 in the hilltop town of Zintan, west of Tripoli.

Seif, 42, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity relating to the bloody repression of the 2011 uprising.

On December 10, the ICC referred Libya to the UN Security Council for not handing him over for trial.

A new hearing in the case of the 40 is due to take place on January 11, when defence lawyers are due to speak.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mm
Date : 28 Dec 2014 22:54
 
20,000 EGYPTIANS FLEE LIBYA AFTER BEHEADINGS, AIRSTRIKES

An Egyptian border official says some 20,000 Egyptians have fled Libya since the release of a grisly beheading video by Islamic State militants.

The video, showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, prompted Cairo to launch retaliatory airstrikes and ban Egyptians from traveling to the increasingly volatile North African country.

Fawzi Nayel, security chief at the Salloum crossing, told The Associated Press an average of 2,000 to 3,000 Egyptians have crossed daily from Libya in the 10 days since the video was released. Many have come from Sirte, the central city where the 21 Coptic Christians were abducted.

He said no mass evacuation is underway in the east, which is largely controlled by the internationally recognized Libyan government, and that Egyptians in western Libya are crossing into Tunisia.


Source : Sapa-AP /mm
Date : 25 Feb 2015 11:27
 
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