Libya: The UN secretary-general said he is “deeply concerned” after meeting eastern commander Khalifa Haftar in Libya on Friday to try to avert renewed civil war as his forces advanced on Tripoli to challenge the internationally recognized government.
The military thrust by Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which is allied to a parallel administration based in the east, has marked a dangerous escalation of a power struggle that has dragged on since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
“I leave Libya with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli,” Antonio Guterres said on Twitter.
“The U.N. is committed to facilitating a political solution and, whatever happens, the UN is committed to supporting the Libyan people.”
Al-Arabiya TV said Haftar told Guterres that the operation would continue until terrorism is defeated.
Tripoli is the ultimate prize for Haftar’s eastern parallel government. In 2014 he assembled former Gaddafi soldiers and in a three-year battle seized the main eastern city of Benghazi, then this year took the south with its oilfields.
The escalation surprised the United Nations. Guterres had been in the capital this week to help organize a national reconciliation conference planned for later this month.
But on Thursday LNA forces took Gharyan, about 80 km (50 miles) south of Tripoli after skirmishes with forces allied to Tripoli-based, UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.
They further moved north coming as close as 40 km to Tripoli by taking the village of Suq al-Khamis after some fighting, a resident and an eastern military source said.
But they failed to take a checkpoint about 30 km west of the capital in a bid to close the coastal road to Tunisia. An LNA-allied militia withdrew overnight from so-called Gate 27, leaving it abandoned in the morning, a Reuters reporter said.
In another setback, forces allied to Tripoli took 145 LNA fighters prisoner in Zawiya, west of Tripoli, a western commander, Mohamed Alhudair, told Reuters. An LNA source confirmed 128 had been captured.
Sixty vehicles had also been seized, Alhudairi said.
Meanwhile armed groups allied to the UN-backed Tripoli government moved more machinegun-mounted pickups from the coastal city of Misrata to Tripoli to defend it against Haftar’s forces.
