Armed groups defending Libya’s capital from an offensive by Egyptian and Emirati-backed warlord Khalifa Haftar have obtained drones for the first time and begun to deploy them along the front lines, a senior official told The Independent.
The war, now on Tripoli’s outskirts, has turned into a battlefield stalemate, with back-and-forth mortars and rocket barrages inflicting casualties and destroying buildings – but barely changing the front around 10 miles from the centre of the capital of 3 million. Nearly 500 people have been killed and at least 2,150 wounded. Some 70,000 people have been displaced.
Mr Meshri, a former member of the Libyan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation considered an ideological enemy by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, said his government was focused on defending the capital and dislodging Mr Haftar’s forces from his strongholds in the cities of Tarhouna and Garyan, south of the capital.
Avoiding the bluster of many Libyan officials and military commanders, he was tempered about the capabilities of the collection of armed groups that make up the GNA force. The most powerful are the brigades from Misrata, the Libyan port city which bore the brunt of the 2011 war against former dictator Muammar Gaddafi and the 2016 war to dislodge Isis from the city of Sirte.
Who is arming these folks?
Who is arming these folks?
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