Tensions in Libya: Marshal Jalifa Hafter militias intensify their offensive and seize the Tripoli international airport

Forces loyal to the Marshal Khalifa Hafter, the strongman of Libya, took control of Tripoli International Airport on Saturday, which has not worked for years, announced his spokesman, Ahmad al Mismari.

In statements to reporters, Al Mismari badured that several units of the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) also conquered the city of Tarhuna, an enclave of great strategic value located 60 km south of the capital.

"The operation" Torrent of Dignity "will not stop until all its military objectives are achieved. We will respond to any attack on our positions, "he said.

The entry by the south axis of the marshal's forces, which controls most of the country, its response was random bombing of militias linked to the Tripoli-based government and supported by the UN.

The militias, however, they could not prevent the forces of the eastern part of Libya from adding other objectives in their advances, like the localities of Qasr bin Ghashir, Wadi Al Rabi and Suq al Khamis, in the southern suburbs of the capital.

In the midst of armed conflict, the UN special envoy for Libya, Ghbadam Salem, said the mission he leads is maintaining his decision to hold the National Conference for the reconciliation scheduled for April 15 in the border town of Ghadames.

It's a Hafter himself opposed this conference which should serve as a basis for the convening of legislative and presidential elections before the end of the year.

"We have been working for a year to carry out this national conference and we will not give up this political work so soon ", he said.

Hafter, a former member of the military leadership who helped Muammar Gaddafi take power in 1969He ordered his troops to begin the conquest of Tripoli on Thursday with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in the capital, in a clear message to the international community.

Recruited by the CIA in the eighties and became one of Gaddafi's main opponents in exile, The Marshal returned to Libya in March 2011, a month after the start of the revolution.

Beginning of May 2014, he managed to get the rebel government based in Tobruk to appoint him to head the former Libyan national army (LNA) and months later began a military operation to control the cities of Benghazi and Derna, which lasted nearly four years and caused a major humanitarian crisis.

In addition, he conquered the ports of Sidrá and Ras Lanuf, heart of the Libyan oil industry.

In February of this year, he took control of the main cities in the south of the country and Al Sharara and Al Fil, in western Libya, are essential to the economic and energy survival of Tripoli.

To dominate the capital, there would remain only the enemy city-state of Misrata, the main commercial port of the country, which sent its troops in aid of the government imposed by the United Nations in Tripoli in 2016.

Last night, both The UN Security Council, like the G7, has asked Hafter – who is supported and armed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt – to stop the escalation violence, a request that his military spokesman said today will not be listening until they have achieved their military objectives.

Yesterday, the clean Antonio Guterres left Libya after meeting the Marshal without convincing him to his seat in Benghazi.