'I am worried about my country because it is getting worse and worse,” a Tripoli resident told Newsweek.
The United States has called for an end to violence in the Libyan capital Tripoli, as military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who cut his teeth fighting for former leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, sets his sights on the country’s seat of power.
Some of the worst fighting seen in the Libyan capital since the country’s 2011 revolution and subsequent NATO intervention, ending Qaddafi’s 42-year rule, erupted at the end of last week as Haftar’s forces began their assault on the outskirts of southern Tripoli. Tripoli’s Health Ministry has announced at least 30 combatants and civilians have been killed since fighting began Thursday.
“They are moving medications and medical equipment into these hospitals,” the medical coordinator added."The Libyan Red Crescent is working with them and they are helping to move the families from those areas." A frontline, pushing towards central Tripoli, now extends from the neighborhoods of Suq al-Khamis, Suq al-Ahad, Ain Zara, Wadi Rabia and Aziziya on the outskirts of southern Tripoli. Prior to the strikes on Mitiga airport, fighting had centered around the strategically important Tripoli International Airport, destroyed in clashes in 2014.
Maha Ellawati, a Libyan journalist and analyst, told Newsweek Haftar was attacking from a position of strength, securing 70 percent of the country’s territory, but already the assault had not gone according to plan. “When Haftar took control of the south of Libya he grew stronger… however, he thought the militias in Tripoli would side with him, but they refused,” she explained.
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