Marshal redoubles attack in Libya | Alert in …

The international community intensified its calls for dialogue with Marshal Khalifa Hafter, the strongman of Libya, who reacted by redoubling his offensive in the east and south of the capital. Yesterday, units of the Libyan National Army (LNA), the militia-led militia, penetrated several tens of kilometers along the southern axis and took control of the old Tripoli International Airport, unused for years. As it progressed, Hafter's forces also captured dozens of strategic positions in the city of Tarhouna, an essential gateway south of the capital, and around Qasr bin Ghashir, Wadi Al Rabi and Suq al Khamis.

After the afternoon, the counterattack of militias still loyal to the UN imposed government in Tripoli has managed to stop ahead thanks to a series of air strikes and even to Expel units from the airfield, according to Interior Minister Fathi Basagha. However, in the end, the situation was uncertain in the airport area, with the two claimants wanting to claim control.

In this wartime environment, both the United Nations Security Council and the G7 have called for an end to the offensive launched Thursday in Hafter, despite the presence in the capital of the UN Secretary-General. , Antonio Guterres. message to the international community about their intentions. A message repeated today by the ANL spokesman, Colonel Ahmad al-Mismari, who stressed that "the Torrent of Dignity operation will not stop until all its military objectives are over." not achieved ", that is to say the conquest of Tripoli. "We will respond to any attack that may occur against our positions," he said at a press conference held in Benghazi, capital of eastern Libya, the country's second-largest city and headquarters. the LNA.

Meeting in France, the foreign ministers of the G7 countries urged both parties to end the fighting "immediately" and insisted on the need to restore the dialogue table to find a negotiated solution to the conflict.

The United Nations Security Council, meeting at the request of the United Kingdom and Germany, also announced yesterday at dawn that Hafter was to halt his advance towards the capital and avoid a possible bloodbath . Also yesterday, the head of the United Nations Special Mission for Libya (UNSMIL), Ghbadam Saleme, urged the United Nations to continue preparations for the April 14 celebration of the National Conference on Reconciliation. it will contrast Hafter. "We have been working for a year to bring this national conference to a successful conclusion and we are not going to give up this political work so soon," said Saleme, who admitted that Hafter had already warned Guterres himself in Benghazi that he had not been able to do so. it would not stop under any circumstances.

The aforementioned national conference is the cornerstone of a country reunification plan presented by Saleme himself in September 2017 and providing for the holding of elections before the end of the year. Since then, Hafter – unlike the plan since the beginning – has used the warlike superiority provided by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to accumulate power and develop territorially. In late 2017, it put an end to Islamist resistance in Benghazi and seized control of the Gulf of Sidra, the core of Libya's rich oil industry. In 2018, he managed to expel militias from the eastern city of Derna – the jihadist battle in Libya – and in February of this year he gained wide control over Sebha, the southern capital, and others. important localities of the south. It also took over the Al Sharara and Al Fil oil fields in the west of the country, vital to the economic and energy survival of Tripoli and the UN-installed government. 2016, that he does not recognize.

Hafter, a member of the military leadership who, in 1969, took power in Muammar Gaddafi, recruited years later by the CIA and becoming his main opponent in exile, would be erected as the most powerful man in the country. . Only the city-state of Misurata, Libya's main commercial port, sent powerful troops to help the capital.