CAIRO – Eastern Libyan forces laying siege on\nthe country’s capital, Tripoli, accused their rivals on Tuesday of staging an\nattack in which a Turkish drone hit a food truck convoy in the country’s west,\nkilling at least five civilians.
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\nThe militia groups loosely allied with a U.N.-supported but weak government in\nTripoli denied attacking civilians, saying instead that they targeted trucks\ncarrying equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take Tripoli.
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\nThe fighting over Tripoli erupted last April, when east-based forces under\ncommander Khalifa Hifter launched an offensive to capture the city. In recent\nweeks, violence has escalated with both sides accusing each other of shelling\ncivilian neighborhoods. The U.N. has said the violence and the worsening\nhumanitarian crisis in Libya could amount to war crimes.
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\nAhmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for Hifter forces, said the drone strike took\nplace late Monday near the district Mizda, 184 kilometers (114 miles) south of\nTripoli.
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\nHifter’s forces control most of eastern and southern Libya while the besieged\nTripoli administration rules just a corner of the country’s west. Both sides\nare supported by a network of fractious militias and foreign powers.
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\nOn Monday, Hifter in an attempted show of strength, declared a 2015\nU.N.-brokered political deal to unite the oil-rich country “a thing of the\npast.”
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\nThe Tripoli-based government said it wasn’t surprised by Hifter’s announcement,\nand urged Libyans to join “a comprehensive dialogue and continue in the\ndemocratic path to reach a comprehensive and permanent solution based on ballot\nboxes.”
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\nWhile the 2015 agreement has so far failed to bring unity or stability to the\ndivided country, Hifter’s announcement threatens to further complicate U.N.\nefforts to broker a political settlement to the civil war.
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\nIn Brussels, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano on Tuesday criticized\nHifter’s announcement from the previous day, saying that “any attempt to\npush forward unilateral solutions, even more so by force, will never provide a\nsustainable solution for the country, and such attempts cannot be\naccepted.”
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\nStano said the December 2015 agreement “remains the viable framework for a\npolitical solution in Libya, until amendments are a found, or replacements are\nfound” agreed by all parties and called on all international actors in\nLibya to “increase their pressure” on the warring parties to help end\nthe fighting and bring about a political settlement.
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\nLibya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled long-time\ndictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The chaos has worsened in the\nrecent round of fighting as foreign backers increasingly intervene, despite\ntheir pledges to the contrary at a high-profile peace summit in Berlin earlier\nthis year.
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\nTurkey has sent armored drones, air defenses and more recently, Syrian\nmilitants with links to extremist groups to prop up the embattled Tripoli\ngovernment. Meanwhile, Russia has deployed hundreds of mercenaries to boost\nHifter’s assault. The United Arab Emirates and Egypt also back Hifter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: Voice of America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"