Fighting raged south of Libya's capital Sunday despite a UN call for a two-hour ceasefire, as forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar and the internationally recognised government exchanged air strikes.
Haftar's offensive on Tripoli, launched Thursday, has threatened to plunge the country into a full-blown civil war and once again derail tentative diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to Libya's woes.At least 21 people have been killed since the start of a four-day-old offensive by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar to take Tripoli, the country's UN-backed government said Sunday.
UNSMIL, the UN mission in Libya, called on "all armed parties in the Wadi Rabi area, Al-Kayekh, Gasr Ben Ghachir and Al-Aziziya to respect a humanitarian truce to secure the evacuation of wounded and civilians by rescue teams and the Libyan Red Crescent". Forces of Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar said Sunday they carried out their first air strike on a suburb of Tripoli, where loyalist fighters announced a "counteroffensive" to defend the capital.
"Due to increased unrest in Libya, a contingent of US forces supporting US Africa Command temporarily relocated from the country in response to security conditions on the ground," it said in a statement.Forces loyal to Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar were pressing on at the weekend with an offensive on the capital Tripoli, seat of the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord .
Anti-government forces led by Haftar earlier said they had been targeted by an air strike about 50 kilometres south of Tripoli. The forces allied to Haftar also said they took control of the villages of Qasr ben Ghashir, Wadi al Rabie and Suq al Khamis south of Tripoli, in a statement.