UN: 220 killed in battles for Libya's capital last 2 weeks
Benghazi, Apr 20: Fighting between rival Libyan forces for control of Tripoli escalated in the past couple of days, a spokesman for the self-styled Libyan National Army said Saturday, as the death toll rose to at least 220, including combatants and civilians, since the LNA declared a major military offensive to take the capital earlier this month.
Fighting erupted April 5 pitting the LNA, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter and aligned with a rival government in the east, against militias affiliated with Tripoli's U.N.-supported government.
Ahmed al-Mesmari, LNA spokesman, told a news conference in the eastern city of Benghazi that heavy clashes have been underway between his forces and rival militias in the towns of Swany and al-Aziziya, south of Tripoli, which Hifter's forces seized earlier this month.
He said militias allied with the U.N.-supported government launched airstrikes on the Al Watiya air base, southwest of Tripoli. There were also airstrikes on the town of Gherian, he said.
Residents in Tripoli said Hifter's forces seem to be making small progress and gains on the ground. They said fighting has been ongoing in residential areas, a few kilometers (miles) south of Tripoli. Both sides have used heavy artillery and airstrikes, they said.
The residents spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The fighting has killed 220 people, including civilians, since Hifter declared his offensive on April 5, the U.N. health agency said Friday. The World Health Organization said that 1,066 others have been wounded.
President Donald Trump phoned Hifter earlier this week, expressing U.S. support for the leader's perceived stance against terrorism.
A White House statement Friday said: "The President recognized Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources, and the two discussed a shared vision for Libya's transition to a stable, democratic political system."
AP reporters saw Hifter's foreign minister Saturday in the Tunis hotel where he was staying, but the press conference he had scheduled was postponed at the last minute.
His press service distributed a statement saying it was because of "developments in Libya and the positive and fast-advancing evolution of events."
The statement did not elaborate but said a new press conference would be arranged at a later date. The Tunisian Foreign Ministry spokesman suggested that the Libyans hadn't requested permission from Tunisia's government to hold the news conference.
Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemais Jhinaoui has intensified contacts in recent days with U.N. envoy Salame and various Libyan parties, calling on them to cease hostilities and resume negotiations. Tunis is officially neutral in the Libyan conflict and has hosted repeated diplomatic negotiations on Libya's future.
Tunisia wants to hold a meeting among the top diplomats of Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia in the coming days to discuss ways to solve Libya's crisis.
The battle for Tripoli could ignite civil war on the scale of the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Since Gahdafi's ouster, Libya has been governed by rival authorities in the east and in Tripoli, in the west, each backed by various militias and armed groups fighting over resources and territory.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
