Unidentified war planes attacked targets in Libya’s capital Tripoli yesterday, residents said, hours after forces from the city of Misurata said they had seized the main airport and clashes persisted in Benghazi.
Tripoli residents heard jets followed by explosions at dawn, but no more details were immediately available. Meanwhile, thick black smoke could be seen over the eastern city of Benghazi as clashes erupted between the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council and fighters of renegade general Khalifa Haftar, as they attempted to seize control of the airport from the council in Benghazi.
In recent weeks Libya has seen the worst fighting since the Nato-backed campaign to oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. General Haftar has declared war on Islamist-leaning forces, part of growing anarchy in the oil producer.
His forces claimed responsibility for air raids on Tripoli on Saturday and last Monday, targeting a group called Operation Dawn. But this group, consisting mainly of fighters from Misurata, said on Saturday that it had captured Tripoli’s main airport from a rival faction from Zintan in western Libya.
In the campaign to overthrow Gaddafi, fighters from Zintan and Misurata were comrades-in-arms. But they later fell out and this year have turned parts of Tripoli into a battlefield.
Libya is facing the prospect of two competing Parliaments
Libya’s neighbours and Western powers worry that Libya will turn into a failed state as the weak government is unable to control armed factions.
Libya faces the prospect of two competing Parliaments after the claimed Misurata victory at Tripoli airport which Reuters could not immediately confirm.
In a challenge to the Parliament elected on June 25, a spokesman for Operation Dawn called for the old General National Congress (GNC) to be reinstated. Misurata forces have rejected the new House of Representatives, where liberals and lawmakers campaigning for a federalist system have made a strong showing.
In a sign of deep divisions between Libya’s regions and political factions the House of Representative declared the Operation Dawn as well as militant Islamists like the Ansar al-Sharia as “terrorist groups”.
The House of Representatives, which has fled to Tobruk in the east with senior officials to escape fighting, asked renegade general Haftar to fight the Operation Dawn forces.
Haftar launched a campaign against Islamists in the eastern city of Benghazi in May and threw his weight behind the Zintan fighters.
His air defence commander, Sager al-Jouroushi, told Reuters on Saturday that his forces were responsible for the air strikes on Saturday and a similar attack last Monday.
Misurata forces have blamed the air strikes on Egypt and the United Arab Emir-ates, two countries which have cracked down on Islamists. Libya’s government says it does not know who is behind the attacks.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi denied his country had conducted any air strikes or other military operation in Libya, state news agency Mena quoted him as saying.
Western and Nato officials have also denied any involvement.
Fighting also erupted between Haftar’s troops and allied army special forces and Islamists in two Benghazi suburbs on Saturday, killing eight soldiers and wounding 35, medics said.
The violence has prompted the United Nations and foreign embassies in Libya to evacuate their staff and citizens, and foreign airlines have largely stopped flying to Libya.
Libya’s central government lacks a functioning national army and relies on militia for public security. But while these forces receive state salaries and wear uniforms, in practice they report to their own commanders and towns.