|
East Libyan warplanes hit Tripoli government positions
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Eastern Libyan forces bogged down in street battles in a push to seize the capital Tripoli...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... deployed warplanes on Friday to hit several government positions, as more civilians fled fighting. More than 1,000 people gathered in central Tripoli to demand that Khalifa Haftar  ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...stop the advance of his Libyan National Army (LNA) on the coastal city of about 1.2 million people. Haftar launched the campaign a week ago, in the latest conflict in a cycle of anarchy since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... But forces loyal to Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj's internationally recognized government have so far kept them at bay, with fierce fighting round a disused former airport about 11 km from the center. Posted by: Fred 2019-04-13 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=538667 |