Libya’s official government conducted air strikes late on Saturday against airports and a military camp in the capital Tripoli, controlled by a rival government, and killed a senior commander loyal to that government, Tripoli officials said yesterday.

The internationally recognised government said that it had launched a military offensive to “liberate” Tripoli, which a group called Libya Dawn seized in August, reinstating a previous parliament.

Residents in Tripoli said television stations linked to the opposing sides gave conflicting accounts of who was in control of two towns west of Tripoli.

The recognised Prime Minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, and the elected Parliament have been confined to eastern Libya since then. Both administrations and the armed factions loyal to them are fighting for control, four years after Muammar Gaddafi was toppled.

A Tripoli official said Salah Burki, a Libya Dawn leader, had been killed west of Tripoli on Saturday, where a state news agency reported clashes between Libya Dawn and forces from Zintan allied to al-Thinni.

Details were unclear. Another official and some news websites said Burki had been killed in an air strike on a military camp in Tripoli.

Al-Thinni says a military offensive to liberate Tripoli has started

The United States and five European allies issued a joint statement condemning the violence by both sides and urging an end to the fighting. They welcomed resumption of UN-led political talks in Morocco and called for “good faith” efforts to reach a ceasefire and agree on a unity government.

Saqer al-Joroushi, an air force commander loyal to the eastern government, said earlier that his aircraft had bombed Mitiga airport in Tripoli and a camp used by Libya Dawn near another airport in the capital. He said they had also attacked the airport in Zuwara, a town near the Tunisian border, west of Tripoli.

UN Special Envoy Bernardino Leon said the military offensive is threatening international efforts to reach agreement on a unity government and lasting ceasefire.

Talks are being held in Morocco, the latest in a series of meetings since September bringing together mostly moderates from both sides.

Western leaders say the UN-brokered talks are the only way to end the chaos in Libya, where Islamist militants have also gained ground. Both sides have attacked each other with warplanes in the past few days.

“We are deeply concerned about the growing threat from terrorist groups in Libya, including Da’esh,” the US and its partners Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said in the joint statement, using an alternative Arabic name for Islamic State militants who have seized swathes of Syria and Iraq.

They said the UN-led talks offered the “best hope” for Libya and also warned that those who impede the process “will be held accountable,” including through international sanctions.

However, diplomats are under no illusions that moderates attending the talks for both sides will face difficulties in persuading hardliners to accept any deal.

Both sides face internal divisions and are dominated by former rebels who helped oust autocrat Gaddafi in 2011, but who now use their weapons to fight for territory.

Al-Thinni’s government, which has allied itself with army general Khalifa Haftar, said his forces launched an operation west of the capital “which kicked off the liberation of Tripoli city and its suburbs from terrorist bases”.

“In the last days, we have seen more fighting, more air strikes, not only in Libya but also in the region,” Leon said, referring to a militant attack in Tunis on Wednesday which killed 23 people.

“There is a sense of emergency so we believe this is going to be a decisive moment,” he said. The two gunmen who attacked a Tunis museum trained at a jihadist camp in Libya, Tunisia said.

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