The forces of Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar rained rockets on Tripoli yesterday after being ousted by unity government loyalists from a string of strategic towns west of the capital.
The capture Monday of the coastal towns of Sorman and Sabratha and smaller settlements further south was seen as a major blow to Haftar, who in April last year launched an offensive to seize Tripoli.
Sorman and Sabratha lie respectively 60 and 70 kilometres west of the Libyan capital, about half-way to the Tunisian border. The oil-rich but poverty-stricken North African country has suffered almost a decade of conflict since longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed in a 2011 uprising backed by several Western powers.
The UN says hundreds have been killed and more than 200,000 displaced in the year since Haftar launched his battle for Tripoli, which quickly ground to a bloody stalemate.
Late Monday, salvo after salvo of rockets began raining down on Tripoli, where the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) is based, and loud explosions could still be heard yesterday morning and again in the afternoon, AFP correspondents said.
Several homes were hit around Mitiga airbase in the eastern suburbs, the capital’s sole and only intermittently functioning airport.
One person was wounded, rescuers said late Monday.
No casualty updates have been issued since. The latest escalation comes as concern runs high over the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Libya, where 25 cases and one death have been officially confirmed.
The UN has warned that health services in the country are already fragile and that many hospitals near fighting zones south of Tripoli have been damaged or closed.
Adding to the misery, more than 2mn residents of areas in and around Tripoli have for the past week been hit by water and power cuts, with the UN accusing “armed groups” of cutting off supplies.
Fighting also raged yesterday south of the capital, a GNA military source said.
The GNA accused pro-Haftar forces of pounding Tripoli in revenge against the civilian population following Monday’s losses.
“The criminal militia and mercenaries have taken out their anger on residential neighbourhoods of Tripoli to avenge their defeat, firing dozens of rockets and missiles on the capital indiscriminately,” spokesman Mohamed Gnunu said.
A Libyan checks the site of shelling on the residential area of Arada in the capital Tripoli, yesterday.
