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TEHRAN, Apr 11 - Fighting between eastern Libyan forces and Tripoli government troops killed 56 people and forced 6,000 to flee their homes in the capital in the last week, the United Nations said on Thursday, as France and Italy wrangled over how to respond to the renewed conflict.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - After sweeping up from the south, the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces of Khalifa Haftar have been blocked in the southern suburbs of Tripoli about 11 km (7 miles) from the centre.
Overnight, a Reuters reporter in downtown Tripoli heard gunfire and explosions as the LNA faced off with the forces of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj’s government around the former international airport and the Ain Zara district.
Haftar’s push for Tripoli is the latest in a cycle of violence and chaos in Libya since the 2011 overthrow of former strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
In Rome, Libya’s former colonial ruler Italy warned France, which has close ties to Haftar, to refrain from supporting any faction after diplomats said Paris blocked a European Union statement calling on him to halt his offensive.
“It would be very serious if France for economic or commercial reasons had blocked an EU initiative to bring peace to Libya and would support a party that is combatting,” Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini told Radio RTL 102.5.
“As minister of the interior I will not stand by and watch.”
France, which has oil assets in eastern Libya, has provided military assistance in past years to Haftar in his eastern stronghold, Libyan and French officials say. It was also a leading player in the war to unseat Gaddafi..
Italy supports the U.N.-backed government of Serraj.
Source: Reuters
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