Libyan rebels pushed back from near Tripoli

The Russian-backed rebel general besieging the Libyan capital of Tripoli has suffered a significant defeat.

Fighters loyal to the UN-recognised Libyan unity government celebrate pushing back rebel forces from towns near Tripoli. Picture: AFP

The Russian-backed rebel general besieging the Libyan capital of Tripoli has suffered a significant defeat as his gamble on rejecting a ceasefire backfired.

Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan ­National Army was driven out of a series of towns west of Tripoli, putting it on the back foot for the first time since it advanced on the capital a year ago.

In that time, the anti-Islamist marshal has refused face-to-face meetings with Fayez al-Serraj, the head of the UN-backed unity government in ­Tripoli.

Now, however, he may be forced to revise his attempts to negotiate only from a position of strength.

The defeat was a humiliating blow for Marshal Haftar, whose advance over the past five years, taking all of eastern Libya and much of the south, had for a while given the impression he was unstoppable. He retaliated by ordering a bombardment of Tripoli, causing panic in its residents, many already suffering after their water supplies were cut off in the renewed fighting.

“They have been bombing the airport and the areas surrounding the airport with Grad rockets,” Fowzi Idris, a businessman from the east of the city, said.

“I don’t know — are they ‘liberating’ civilians or killing them?”

In the latest fighting, forces of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord led by Mr Serraj moved swiftly on to the offensive, after the LNA tried to move west towards the Tunisian border.

They were able to strike from the rear, and seize two large towns the LNA had held on the coast.

They then pressed home their ­advantage as the LNA appeared to capitulate, seizing several other, smaller towns. By Tuesday, all the coast west of Tripoli was in the hands of Mr Serraj’s forces.

A year ago, Marshal Haftar ­defied calls by Western powers for a ceasefire by launching an attack on the capital just as he was due to hold peace talks with Mr Serraj in the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi.

The UAE and Egypt have backed Marshal Haftar throughout the war, since they regard him as at the vanguard of their own ­efforts to combat political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the Middle East. Brotherhood-linked groups and militias are among the main backers of Mr Serraj’s government.

Marshal Haftar claimed he would be able to seize the city and with it end the five-year war in his favour. However, although the GNA’s defences were shaky, his offensive stalled in the southern suburbs.

Tuesday’s bombardment of Tripoli was one of the fiercest of the conflict.

It came despite calls for restraint by the UN, especially after Libya reported its first cases of corona­virus. One person has died so far and 25 are reported sick.

The continued fighting is also a rebuff to the EU, which has repeatedly tried to mediate between the sides and has also approved a naval task force to enforce a UN arms embargo on both sides.

Libyan analyst Anas el-Gomati said it was notable that the LNA’s forces capitulated in areas west of Tripoli where they were not reinforced by the Russian and Sudanese mercenaries that Moscow and the UAE have supplied.

The Times