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Africa North

Unity govt says 3 killed in air raid south of Libya capital

2020-01-02

[AlAhram] Three non-combatants were killed Wednesday in an air raid on a town south of Libya's 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...
, a front man for the UN-recognised government said.

"Three were killed and three maimed in an air raid on al-Sawani," Amin al-Hachemi, front man for the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, told AFP.

Al-Sawani lies around 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of the capital and under GNA control.

Tripoli's southern suburbs have been hit by deadly fighting since eastern strongman 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, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. 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...
launched an offensive against the capital in early April.

Several shops were badly damaged in the air raid, Hachemi said.

On their Facebook page, forces loyal to the GNA published pictures of badly damaged buildings and vehicles, and accused pro-Haftar forces of carrying out the raid.

GNA forces said in a statement that they had captured 25 pro-Haftar fighters on Wednesday.

Libya has been mired in conflict since a 2011 NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moamer Qadaffy, with rival administrations in the east and west vying for power.

According to UN figures published last month, festivities around Tripoli since April 4 have killed more than 280 civilians and 2,000 fighters, while over 140,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

Posted by:trailing wife

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