CAIRO – Eastern Libyan forces laying siege on
the country’s capital, Tripoli, accused their rivals on Tuesday of staging an
attack in which a Turkish drone hit a food truck convoy in the country’s west,
killing at least five civilians.
The militia groups loosely allied with a U.N.-supported but weak government in
Tripoli denied attacking civilians, saying instead that they targeted trucks
carrying equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take Tripoli.
The fighting over Tripoli erupted last April, when east-based forces under
commander Khalifa Hifter launched an offensive to capture the city. In recent
weeks, violence has escalated with both sides accusing each other of shelling
civilian neighborhoods. The U.N. has said the violence and the worsening
humanitarian crisis in Libya could amount to war crimes.
Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for Hifter forces, said the drone strike took
place late Monday near the district Mizda, 184 kilometers (114 miles) south of
Tripoli.
Hifter’s forces control most of eastern and southern Libya while the besieged
Tripoli administration rules just a corner of the country’s west. Both sides
are supported by a network of fractious militias and foreign powers.
On Monday, Hifter in an attempted show of strength, declared a 2015
U.N.-brokered political deal to unite the oil-rich country “a thing of the
past.”
The Tripoli-based government said it wasn’t surprised by Hifter’s announcement,
and urged Libyans to join “a comprehensive dialogue and continue in the
democratic path to reach a comprehensive and permanent solution based on ballot
boxes.”
While the 2015 agreement has so far failed to bring unity or stability to the
divided country, Hifter’s announcement threatens to further complicate U.N.
efforts to broker a political settlement to the civil war.
In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano on Tuesday criticized
Hifter’s announcement from the previous day, saying that “any attempt to
push forward unilateral solutions, even more so by force, will never provide a
sustainable solution for the country, and such attempts cannot be
accepted.”
Stano said the December 2015 agreement “remains the viable framework for a
political solution in Libya, until amendments are a found, or replacements are
found” agreed by all parties and called on all international actors in
Libya to “increase their pressure” on the warring parties to help end
the fighting and bring about a political settlement.
Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled long-time
dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The chaos has worsened in the
recent round of fighting as foreign backers increasingly intervene, despite
their pledges to the contrary at a high-profile peace summit in Berlin earlier
this year.
Turkey has sent armored drones, air defenses and more recently, Syrian
militants with links to extremist groups to prop up the embattled Tripoli
government. Meanwhile, Russia has deployed hundreds of mercenaries to boost
Hifter’s assault. The United Arab Emirates and Egypt also back Hifter.
Source: Voice of America