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Images released by forces loyal to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar apparently reportedly advanced at lightning speed up to 30 kilometers from the government-controlled capital. By – (LNA / AFP War Information Division)
Forces loyal to the Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar were pushed back Friday from a major checkpoint located less than 30 km from Tripoli, blocking their meteoric advance on the capital, a security source said.
Progovernment militiamen from the coastal town of Zawiya, west of Tripoli, have resumed the base after a "short exchange of fire," the source said on condition of anonymity.
The advance of Haftar's forces on Thursday, as the UN prepares to hold a conference later this month on the organization of deferred elections, prompted UN chief Antonio Guterres to express his "deep concern".
Guterres was in Tripoli for talks with the UN-backed UN-backed chief of government, Fayez al-Sarraj, when the offensive was announced. He was scheduled to meet Haftar on Friday in eastern Libya.
The United Nations Security Council was also scheduled to hold an urgent meeting on the crisis, while Western governments called for restraint.
Traffic normally pbaded in front of the checkpoint on Friday morning, an AFP correspondent reported.
Only one armored vehicle was seen. The allegiance of its occupants was not immediately clear.
The Zawiya militia is among dozens of people who have mushroomed since the overthrow of veteran dictator Moamer Gaddafi during a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that are variously aligned with the government of the union. supported by the UN in the capital and on a rival government backed by Haftar. forces.
Map of northern Libya. By Vincent LEFAI (AFP) Most pro-Haftar fighters who briefly captured the checkpoint on Thursday night are rival militiamen from the town of Sabratha, further west of the Mediterranean coast.
Dozens of them were captured and their vehicles seized, the security source said.
Images displayed on social media men in military uniform sitting on the floor claimed to show some of the captured people, but their authenticity could not be immediately verified.
The Tripoli Protection Force, an alliance of pro-government militias in the capital, said its fighters took part in the resumption of the checkpoint located 27 km to the south.
& # 39; The time has come & # 39;
A convoy of Haftar forces vehicles was pushed back Thursday to the city of Gharyan, about 100 kilometers south of Tripoli, witnesses and military sources said.
Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar said that "the time has come" for his forces, which already dominate much of the east and south, to move to the capital Tripoli, the seat of the government. UN-supported union. By Abdullah DOMA (AFP / File) Haftar said that "the time has come" to take Tripoli in an audio message released on Thursday, in which he pledged to spare civilians and "state institutions".
The spokesman for his forces, Ahmed Mesmari, said that they were "at the gates of the capital" Thursday night.
The head of the Unity government, Fayez al-Sarraj, on Thursday condemned Haftar's "escalation" and said that he had ordered the loyalist forces to prepare for "dealing with all the threats".
The United Nations Security Council was to meet behind closed doors to discuss the crisis.
The United States and its allies issued a joint statement urging "all parties to immediately defuse tensions".
"At this sensitive moment of transition in Libya, military positions and unilateral threats of action risk only bringing Libya back to chaos," they said.
Russia called for "all possible efforts to completely resolve the situation with peaceful political means".
"We think the bottom line is that any action will not lead to another bloodshed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Analysts say the advance of Haftar's forces comes at a key juncture, as the UN attempts to put the elections back on track after an abortive effort last year.
Increased risk
"The risk of thrust has increased," said Jalel Harchaoui, a researcher at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague.
"Capturing Tripoli (…) remains a possibility" for Haftar, with the support it receives from Saudi Arabia and its allies, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, does it declared.
Haftar's forces have already invaded most of the oases and remote oil fields of the southern desert earlier this year, including its main city, Sebha. By – (AFP / File) Haftar had talks in Riyadh late last month and his forces reportedly received substantial arms deliveries from the United Arab Emirates, including planes, despite a UN embargo.
They have already invaded most of the oil fields and oases of the southern desert during an offensive earlier this year.
The government's mandate is now largely confined to the narrow coastal strip around Tripoli and the third city of Misrata in the east.
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