Libya’s unity forces in battle to retake strategic Sirte

TRIPOLI: Fighters loyal to Libya´s UN-recognised government Sunday kept up their counter-offensive against forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar, but fighting slowed on the outskirts of the strategic city of Sirte. The Mediterranean coastal city — the home of former dictator Moamer Kadhafi, who was ousted and killed in 2011 in a NATO-backed uprising — is also a key gateway to the country´s major oil fields in the east.

The Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli has in recent weeks retaken all remaining outposts of western Libya from pro-Haftar loyalists, who had sought to capture the capital in a 14-month offensive. Haftar, following his string of military setbacks, was in Cairo on Saturday where he supported a ceasefire proposal made by his key backer, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, meant to take effect at 0400 GMT Monday. The so-called “Cairo declaration” called for the withdrawal of “foreign mercenaries from all Libyan territory, dismantling militias and handing over their weaponry,” Sisi said. But the resurgent GNA has rejected the truce plan and bombarded Sirte, the last major settlement before the traditional boundary between western Libya and the east, Haftar´s traditional stronghold.

Mohamad Gnounou, a spokesman for the GNA´s forces, declared on Saturday that “we will choose the time and place when” the war ends. He said air strikes were targeting enemy positions in Sirte and “orders have been given to our forces to begin their advance and to systematically attack all rebel positions”. Pro-GNA forces also said they had on Saturday shot down a Chinese-made Wing Loong drone supplied by the Emirates to the Haftar camp nearby.