Forces loyal to Libya’s
UN-backed unity government have established control over Tripoli’s
international airport, according to a Libyan military official.
"Presidential Guards and
the Interior Ministry have assumed control of the airport and are now
responsible for its security,” Presidential Guards commander Najmi al-Nakoua
said in a televised statement late Sunday.
Forces affiliated with the
unity government reportedly took control of the airport following the
withdrawal of forces loyal to Libya’s self-proclaimed "salvation government”,
which also remains based in Tripoli.
Speaking to local private
television channel Al-Nabaa, Colonel Ibrahim Bayt al-Mal, a spokesman for the
Misrata Military Council, confirmed that several battalions affiliated with the
salvation government had withdrawn from the airport and its environs.
"These battalions pulled
out of the area with a view to averting bloodshed,” he said.
"The partial withdrawal
involved some 250 military vehicles that departed for Misrata,” he added
without elaborating.
Last Friday, Tripoli was
rocked by violent clashes between forces affiliated with the rival governments
that left almost 50 people dead, according to Libya’s unity
government-affiliated Health Ministry.
Tripoli’s airport had
remained largely inoperable due to earlier clashes between "Fajr Libya” forces,
linked to the salvation government, and forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, the
military commander who serves Libya’s Tobruk-based parliament.
Libya has been locked in a
state of violence and turmoil since 2011, when a bloody popular uprising ended
with the ouster and death former President Muammar Gaddafi.
Following Gaddafi’s
departure, the country’s stark political divisions yielded two rival seats of
government, one in Tobruk and another in Tripoli.
Late last year, Libya’s
rival governments signed a UN-backed agreement that led to the establishment of
a new "unity government” with the ostensible aim of resolving the country’s
six-year political standoff.
(Anadolu Agency
)