Libya’s national oil company has declared a “state of emergency” after exports of its oil from the ports in the eastern part of the country were blocked by forces loyal to the Libyan National Army's General Khalifa Haftar.
The Petroleum Facilities Guard – a militia that controls major export terminals in eastern Libya – has ordered local subsidiaries of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), who run them, to cease all operations, the firm said in a statement.

The move makes any export of oil from Libya impossible, the company then warned, adding that it would lead to losses in crude oil production amounting to 800,000 barrels per day, as well as daily financial losses estimated at about $55 million.

CAIRO (Sputnik) - The Libyan National Army (LNA) announced on Friday that it had taken control of roads leading to the Tripoli airport and was set for major battles for main areas of the Libyan capital.

The news comes a day after information surfaced that the rival Tripoli-based government has officially requested military aid from Turkey.

"The LNA is advancing after violent clashes on roads that lead to the center of the capital. The GNA retreated leaving bodies lying on the road to Tripoli airport", the LNA wrote on Facebook, as quoted by Al Arabiya.

LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari, in turn, told the TV channel said that the next few hours would surprise all those following the developments in Libya, saying that the battle for Tripoli was ongoing.

Mohammed Al-Khalid Kalo
@Ka9lo

CAIRO (Sputnik) - The Libyan National Army (LNA) announced on Friday that it had taken control of roads leading to the Tripoli airport and was set for major battles for main areas of the Libyan capital.

The news comes a day after information surfaced that the rival Tripoli-based government has officially requested military aid from Turkey.

"The LNA is advancing after violent clashes on roads that lead to the center of the capital. The GNA retreated leaving bodies lying on the road to Tripoli airport", the LNA wrote on Facebook, as quoted by Al Arabiya.

LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari, in turn, told the TV channel said that the next few hours would surprise all those following the developments in Libya, saying that the battle for Tripoli was ongoing.

Mohammed Al-Khalid Kalo
@Ka9lo

Bloomberg has confirmed on Friday the prior rumors that Turkey will be sending mercenaries to Libya — where it is propping up the UN-backed government in Tripoli (the GNA) — are true. "Turkey is preparing to deploy troops and naval forces to support the internationally-recognized Libyan government, joining a planned push by Ankara-backed Syrian rebels to defeat strongman Khalifa Haftar," reports Bloomberg.

Though Ankara has yet to confirm or deny the new reports, Erdogan's Turkey has for years overseen a Libya-to-Turkey-to-Syria arms "rat line" which saw both heavy weaponry and jihadists fighters transported for the purpose of toppling Assad. But now with Erdogan's eyes set on defeating Benghazi-based General Khalifa Haftar, it appears this arms and jihadist rat line has conveniently been reversed.

SOURCE: ZERO HEDGE
As we predicted the Libyan war 2.0 has spilled into the Mediterranean and now standings on the brink of becoming a major renewed international proxy conflict bringing in regional powers, especially Turkey, Egypt, and potentially Russia.

The pro-Haftar Libyan National Army (LNA), based in the war-torn country's east, announced late Saturday it seized a Turkish vessel and briefly detained several Turkish crew members while the freighter was searched for weapons. "A vessel under the flag of Grenada, with a team of Turkish citizens on board, was detained," the LNA press service said. It was seized “because it entered Libya’s territorial waters without prior permission,” the LNA spokesman added.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey may need to draft a bill to allow for troop deployment to Libya and its parliament is working on the issue, Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Tuesday, after Ankara signed a military cooperation agreement with Tripoli last month.

“There might be a need for an authorisation in line with the developments over there. The parliament is conducting work on this issue,” Kalin told a news conference in Ankara.

“We will continue to support the internationally recognised Libyan government. This support may be in terms of military training, or other areas, such as political support,” Kalin said.

A new wave of mercenaries from Sudan is fighting in Libya, deepening concerns that the conflict in the north African state has descended into an intractable international war that could destabilise much of the region.

Leaders of two different groups of Sudanese fighters active in Libya have told the Guardian that they had received hundreds of new recruits in recent months. Both groups were fighting with the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by General Khalifa Haftar against the internationally recognised government in Tripoli.

“A lot of young men [are coming] … we even do not have the capacity to accommodate these big numbers,” said one commander who is based in the south of Libya.

The commanders said that there are at least 3,000 Sudanese mercenaries now fighting in Libya, significantly more than most previous estimates.

UN-recognised government in Tripoli says it will boost cooperation with Ankara, sources tell Al Jazeera.

A week ago Erdogan said that he was ready to deploy troops to Libya on short notice. Today rumors appeared in Arab media, still unconfirmed, that Turkish special operations forces landed in Tripoli.

The Libyan war between two Libyan parties will now become a very different beast. Egypt will not tolerate a Muslim Brotherhood led Libya as its neighbor. Before the Turkish support allows the GNA government to defeat Haftar Egypt will intervene. The situation can thereby soon develop into an intense war during which Turkish troops fight on Libyan grounds against the Egyptian military.

Both countries have rich Arab sponsors who can finance a long and intense conflict. Both have lots of material and many many soldiers who they can throw into the fight. The Egyptian side has one advantage. Its long land border allows for easy resupply while Turkey will have to rely on supplies that come by sea and air and can be cut off or at least interrupted.

The years-long war for post-Gaddafi Libya now threatens to spill over into the Mediterranean as Turkey and Greece line up on either side of the conflict. Each side is now threatening the others' allied ships in southern waters after a controversial maritime deal expanded Turkish claims off Libya's coast.

On Thursday Benghazi-based General Kalifa Haftar declared his Libyan National Army has begun its "final decisive battle" to wrest control of the capital of Tripoli from the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA).

"Zero hour has come for the broad and total assault expected by every free and honest Libyan," Haftar said in a televised address, reports Al Jazeera. "Today, we announce the decisive battle and the advancement towards the heart of the capital to set it free... advance now our heroes." Beginning eight months ago Haftar launched a siege of Tripoli, which has been stalled in recent months.

Turkey and Libya have signed an expanded maritime, security and military cooperation agreement which gives Turkey the right to deploy troops there if requested by authorities in Tripoli, President Erdogan has told state-run TRT television in an interview on Monday.

"In the event of such a call coming, it is Turkey's decision what kind of initiative it will take here." Erdogan said, as reported by Reuters. "We will not seek the permission of anyone on this," he underscored.

The Israeli government has increased discretionary spending on settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory by 50 per cent over the last two years, reported the Jerusalem Post.

According to data published by settlement watchdog Peace Now, so-called “discretionary spending” “is expenditure by various ministries outside the general budget, including from the Interior, Housing, Education, and Energy and Water ministries, as well as the National Roads Authority”.

These funds are directed towards the construction of settlement housing units, as well as for roads inside the settlements, “buildings for educational, social and religious purposes, commercial centres and industrial parks”, the report added.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
The Israeli government is aiming to increase the volume of Israel’s defence exports, reported Globes, which has revealed the main points of the plan for the first time.

The project, being overseen by the Defence Ministry’s International Defence Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) led by Brigadier General (Res.) Yair Kulas, will begin to be rolled out in early 2020.

According to Globes, the plan is based on “focused seminars for senior commanders in foreign armies”, Israeli military “assistance for promoting sales of Israeli weapons”, and “subsidising small and medium-sized defence companies seeking to sell arms around the world”.

Speaking this week, Kulas said that SIBAT favours a major expansion of agreements between countries, resulting in significant deals for the large defence companies, especially Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.

Starting last April President Trump caught many in his own administration off guard when he unexpectedly thanked renegade General Khalifa Haftar for "securing Libya's oil resources" at a moment the rebel leader assaulted the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

The public praise and phone call between Trump and the former CIA-backed warlord was a shock at the time given the US has maintained a policy of only recognizing the GNA in line with UN allies.

But now that continued recognition appears to be shifting fast after this week Trump admin officials held multiple meetings with an official representing Haftar's political team named Aref al-Nayed, expected to hold a top leadership position once Tripoli is 'liberated' by Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA).

The United States has called on Libyan renegade General Khalifa Haftar to stop a months-long offensive on Tripoli and said it would back the country’s internationally recognised government against "Russia’s attempts to exploit the conflict".

The statement was the most explicit call by Washington against the self-styled Libyan National Army of Haftar, who was earlier praised by President Donald Trump.

"The United States calls on the 'Libyan National Army’ to end its offensive on Tripoli," the US State Department said in a joint statement released on Thursday after talks with a delegation from Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord in Washington.

Libya has been split between rival camps based in Tripoli and the east since 2014, a result of the divisions that surfaced following the NATO-backed overthrow of long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi three years earlier.

In what marks a major shift in US policy in Libya, the US State Department issued a statement late Thursday demanding that Gen. Khalifa Hafter and his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) stop trying to conquer the capital city of Tripoli.

The US had initially opposed the LNA invasion of Tripoli in April, but following a talking-to from Saudi Arabia and other nations seen as pro-Hafter, President Trump endorsed Hafter and suggested he’s going to play a big role in Libya in the future. This remained the US position up until now.

The change seems to be a function of recent news about Russia backing Hafter, with the State Department accusing Russia of “exploiting the conflict against the will of the Libyan people.”

A former general in the Gadhafi-era military, Hafter later was a CIA asset and participated in several failed coups d’etat. His force has substantial territory in eastern Libya, but has struggled to move deep into Tripoli.

A new report in Axios suggests that Russia has significantly increased its presence in war-torn Libya, perhaps seeking to clean up the mess left in the wake of the US-NATO led regime change war which toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

This after a recent NY Times investigation found that at least 200 Russian mercenaries from Wagner Group have been in Libya supporting renegade General Khalifa Haftar's offensive against the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

Eight years after Gaddafi's overthrow and brutal field execution at the hands of NATO-backed rebel Islamists, the oil and gas abundant country is still in the throes of grinding factional civil war.

Interior Minister for Tripoli's GNA Fathi Bashagha told Axios the unfolding “proxy war” will doom the country to become “a haven for terrorists and extremists” unless the US steps in again.

One of the 3,000 Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department on New Year’s Eve (where real news is sent to die quietly) has revealed evidence that NATO’s plot to overthrow Gaddafi was fueled by first their desire to quash the gold-backed African currency, and second the Libyan oil reserves.

The email in question was sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by her unofficial adviser Sydney Blumenthal titled “France’s client and Qaddafi’s gold”.

US Africa Command issued a statement on Wednesday reporting that airstrikes against the southern Libyan town of Murzuq killed at least 11 people. The US statement declared everyone slain a “suspected militant.”

The US statement said they intended to kill ISIS members, and they believe they did so. This is the second strike against Murzuq in the past week by the US, with everyone slain as yet an unnamed “suspect.”

The UN expressed concern about the strikes, warning that “the conflict risks escalating to a full-blown civil war,” and faulting “external actors” for their involvement in the clashes.

Recently made public FBI records reveal that the agency virtually ignored evidence from private GOP-backed sources about a scheme in which Hillary Clinton associates tried to exploit her position as Secretary of State in order to profit from the 2011 turmoil in Libya she helped to create, according to RealClearInvestigations.

The documents, provided to the FBI in June 2016 as the agency was kicking its Trump-Russia investigation into high gear, allege that Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal sent her "a series of detailed memos and reports about Libya," which were intended as a "quid pro quo" which might help a post-Gaddafi Libya recover as much as $66 billion in offshore funds hidden by the slain strongman.

Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar will press on with his five-month offensive to capture Tripoli despite mounting international calls for a cease-fire and talks, according to his spokesman.

In an interview in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, General Ahmed al-Mismari dismissed the internationally-recognized prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, as powerless and negotiations as futile. “The man was unable to sign a single paper,” he said of Sarraj. “He would always give the excuse that he needed to hold consultations. We’ve exhausted all good offices.”

The expanding chaos of the renewed war in Libya, increasingly a 'failed state' if there ever was a prime example of one, now approaching a decade on from its so-called "liberation" in 2011 by US-NATO forces, keeps providing daily and weekly reminders of the Obama-Hillary Clinton legacy of 'humanitarian intervention'.

On Saturday what is being reported as either a car bomb or possibly a roadside bomb ripped through a neighborhood in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi near United Nations offices.

The blast killed two UN staff, identified as United Nations Libya mission (UNSMIL) guards, with an additional ten people wounded, some among them children, according to Reuters.

The airport, the only one still functioning in Tripoli, has already endured airstrikes in the past that forced it to close to all air traffic, but was recently restored at the beginning of July.

Tripoli's Mitiga International Airport has closed for incoming and outgoing air traffic after being hit by air strikes, the airport reported on its Facebook page. No further details have been given so far.

Libya's capital Tripoli, which is controlled by the Government of National Accord (GNA), has been under attack by the forces of Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by Khalifa Haftar since April. Haftar announced that the LNA would clear the city of GNA forces, which he described as "terrorists".

Libya was once a key embarkation point for jihadists headed to foreign battlefields - first in the 1980s Afghan-Soviet War where they supported the CIA-backed mujahideen, and more recently in Syria, where both massive jihadist manpower and heavy weaponry were transferred to the killing fields of Aleppo and Idlib (also, it should be noted, in support of CIA regime change efforts against Assad).

But as we described after a recent New York Times report unveiled that US anti-tank missiles have been found in "unknown" Libyan rebel hands fighting within warlord Khalifa Haftar's ranks, the once stable formerly Gadaffi-ruled Arab North African country which was in 2011 "liberated" at the hands of US-NATO forces has once again become ground zero in a grinding proxy war which has allowed jihadists to run rampant amid the chaos.

SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE
Libya was once a key embarkation point for jihadists headed to foreign battlefields - first in the 1980s Afghan-Soviet War where they supported the CIA-backed mujahideen, and more recently in Syria, where both massive jihadist manpower and heavy weaponry were transferred to the killing fields of Aleppo and Idlib (also, it should be noted, in support of CIA regime change efforts against Assad).

But as we described after a recent New York Times report unveiled that US anti-tank missiles have been found in "unknown" Libyan rebel hands fighting within warlord Khalifa Haftar's ranks, the once stable formerly Gadaffi-ruled Arab North African country which was in 2011 "liberated" at the hands of US-NATO forces has once again become ground zero in a grinding proxy war which has allowed jihadists to run rampant amid the chaos.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the US-led NATO military alliance is to blame for the destruction of Libya, warning that the situation there was deteriorating as more and more militants are moving from Syria into the North African country.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Rome, Putin said it is important to recall how the chaos unfolded in Libya.

“Do you remember who destroyed Libya? It was a NATO decision. It was European aircraft that bombed Libya,” he said.

The North African country has plunged into a civil war since longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed after an uprising and a NATO military intervention in 2011.

Following the exposure of Belgium's mishandling of Muammar Gaddafi's frozen funds, it turns out that the British government has been collecting taxes on the former head of state's blocked UK assets. British and US lawmakers have discussed the legality of London's move and shared prognoses on whether the money will ever be returned to the Libyans.

Neither the late Muammar Gaddafi nor the citizens of Libya have access to the whopping £12 billion in assets the former head of state had in the UK, but Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs has collected around £17 million in taxes on the assets since 2016, according to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee's latest report.

The disclosure has prompted some British lawmakers to demand that London use the money earned in interest on the frozen accounts to compensate the victims of the Irish Republican Army (IRA); the organisation was supplied with weapons and explosives by the Gaddafi government in the 1980s.

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA.COM

The United Nations Security Council has called on Libya's warring parties to commit to a ceasefire after a deadly air raid on a detention centre for migrants and refugees near the capital, Tripoli.

"The members of the Security Council stressed the need for all parties to urgently de-escalate the situation and to commit to a ceasefire," the 15-member body said in a joint statement on Friday.

"Lasting peace and stability in Libya will come only through a political solution."

The UN's most powerful body also called on the parties to rapidly return to UN-mediated political talks, and urged other countries not to intervene or exacerbate conflict in Libya, which has been wracked by chaos since the NATO-backed overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

A U.S. judge declared a mistrial Monday after a federal jury convicted a second Libyan man of conspiracy in the deadly 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, but deadlocked on 15 of 17 counts in connection with the deaths of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

U.S. District Judge Christopher "Casey" Cooper found jurors hung and dismissed them after they reported themselves unable "to come to unanimous agreement on any of the remaining counts" in a note sent at 11:27 a.m.

Cooper last Thursday asked jurors to return after a weekend break following their partial verdict, in which they found Mustafa al-Imam, 47, guilty on one count each of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and maliciously destroying government property in overnight attacks that began Sept. 11, 2012, on a U.S. diplomatic mission and nearby CIA post.

CAIRO/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The head of the Libyan parliament aligned with eastern forces trying to seize the capital from the internationally-backed government said on Thursday there could be no peace talks until they had captured the city.

Forces led by Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive on Tripoli in early April but the assault has stalled in the face of resistance from local armed groups aligned with the U.N.-recognised government there.

Haftar and his backers say they are trying to free the capital from militias which they blame for destabilising Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

Haftar’s critics accuse him of trying to seize power through force and deepening a conflict between factions based in the east and west of the sprawling North African country.

The campaign on Tripoli has left at least 653 dead and displaced more than 93,000, according to the United Nations, as well as causing extensive material damage.

We might call it the war for Libya 2.0, given that following the Arab North African country turning to chaos and ruin following the 2011 US-NATO regime change war against Gaddafi, a new war for Tripoli is fast becoming internationalized in what threatens to be a full-blown proxy war.

New reports this week have uncovered what appear to be covert arms shipments pouring into the war-torn country on "mysterious planes" in support of General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), which has since early April laid siege to the capital city. At the same time, there's new evidence that external countries like Turkey as well as foreign mercenaries are bolstering the ranks of the UN-backed Government of National Accord which Haftar is trying to unseat.

He noted that the offensive on Tripoli came on the eve of the holding of a national conference in the Libyan city of Ghadames, a key event in Libya's political process.

"To see those who had enthusiastically accepted our invitation to Ghadames suddenly take up arms against each other to attack the capital, or to defend it, has thrown me into the deepest level of sadness for the opportunity lost and for a hope killed exactly 10 days before its realization," said Salame.

The attack on Tripoli also imperiled the potential of the talks held on Feb. 27 in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, between Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Gen. Haftar, the sixth of its kind between them, he said.

Eight years on from NATO’s war in Libya in 2011, as the country enters a new phase in its conflict, I have taken stock of the number of countries to which terrorism has spread as a direct product of that war. The number is at least 14. The legacy of the overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi — pursued by U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama — has been gruesomely felt by Europeans and Africans. Yet holding these leaders accountable for their decision to go to war is as distant as ever.

This is the first proof of foreign mercenaries fighting for the international community’s U.N. backed Tripoli based ‘government’. (As stated earlier, who In actuality, due to there existing no GNA Armed Forces, no real Serraj government forces, are a collection of militias with a dominant influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation that dates back to the 1920s that is already designated in some countries as a terrorist organisation).

Its worth giving further background to a little discussed aspect of extremist organisations like ISIS, is where in the main do they recruit from? The answer is Tunisia!

NATO is ready to “help Libya” in setting up security structures if conditions are favorable, Alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a meeting with UN Special Envoy to Libya Gassan Salama.

Stoltenberg held a meeting with Salama on Monday to discuss the situation in Libya, in which NATO helped deteriorate, expressing the Alliance’s deep concern about the situation in Libya and stressed that it will continue to call on all parties to cease hostilities and join to the political process. He made it clear that there is no military solution to the situation in Libya, reported the NATO press office.

In addition, NATO is supposedly ready to help Libya build effective security institutions, including a modern Ministry of Defense and effective security services under civilian control of the government, but it will be done at the request of the Libyan government and only if the security conditions are favorable, he said.

Once-secret e-mails belonging to Democrat Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton expose the involvement of Obama's then-secretary of state in shipping weapons to jihadists, including to terrorists in the Islamic State, or ISIS, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said last week. Speaking to the far-left Democracy Now program, Assange highlighted the fact that Clinton played a key role in funneling weaponry from Libya, which she helped destroy alongside jihadist allies on the ground, to Obama-backed terror groups in Syria.

The true extent of the fall-out from the Libya war is remarkable: it has spurred terrorism in Europe, Syria, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa

On 4 April, General Khalifa Haftar, whose forces control Eastern Libya, announced the first phase of an offensive intended to gain control of forces loyal to Tripoli, prompting the mobilisation of the defense. In response, armed forces loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) launched a military op against the LNA.

According to the Tripoli-based Libyan government, cited by Libya Observer, the country’s Presidential Council has evidence that foreign aircraft were involved in a drone attack on Tripoli that took place on Saturday evening, noting that an investigation is underway in coordination with the United Nations.

Eight international NGOs demanded on Thursday that France suspend delivery of boats to Libya’s coast guard over concerns they would be used to intercept migrants. The groups included Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders. French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly had in February agreed to donate six boats to the Libyan Navy, under which the coast guard operates. The move, she said, was aimed at helping them “in the fight against illegal immigration.” However, rights groups say the vessels would be used to block migrant boats attempting to reach Europe, forcing those on board to return to war-torn Libya.

The European Union has formally recognized the government in Tripoli. However, French officials seem to be playing both sides. Many Libyans want France's government to butt out — and General Haftar continues to advance.

The participants at the Forum of Russian-Arab Cooperation agreed to continue developing efforts to contribute to the normalization in Libya, declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, at the closing of negotiations held with the Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

“We have agreed to continue working on the normalization of Libya,” said Lavrov.

The Russian foreign minister said that those gathered expressed their support for the efforts of the UN special representative, Ghassan Salame, on the implementation of the Road Map, prepared by him, to contribute to the normalization in Libya.

“The common task of the interested parties is to help the Libyans overcome the existing discord and reach agreements that lead to national reconciliation,” said Lavrov.

Government of National Accord (GNA) aviation is targeting the Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) positions located not far from Libya's capital, Tripoli, an LNA source told Sputnik.

"The military aviation of the Government of National Accord has hit the LNA Army's points in the Sukh al-Akhad region located in 40 kilometres from Tripoli," the source told Sputnik.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

During the last 3 days, intense clashes were ongoing between militias loyal to the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA) south of the capital of Tripoli and in several coastal areas. Pro-GNA factions concentrated most of their best forces and efforts in the area of Tripoli International Airport. By April 10, they had recaptured most of the airport and the town of Swani from the LNA and advanced further to the south entering Al-Aziiziyah. This counter-attack was led by the Tripoli Protection Forces and Misrata militias. According to pro-GNA sources, they have captured 34 LNA service members with their vehicles and destroyed at least one LNA battle tank.

As General Khalifa Haftar’s offensive closes in on the Libyan capital of Tripoli, US troops have withdrawn, leaving the UN-supported Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj on his own. A scholar told Sputnik that Haftar is the man the international community wants, but they only want him so he’ll resume production in Libya’s vast oil fields.

Once the most affluent country in Africa, Libya has been wracked by chaos and civil war since the catastrophic NATO-directed intervention in 2011 that overthrew longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, resulting in his murder, the destruction of the country and its splitting into rival militant factions.

Haftar's LNA troops began an advance on Tripoli last week, striking positions of armed forces loyal to the GNA at the city's defunct international airport on Tuesday after an attack on another airport a day earlier.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Much of the Mainstream Media’s reporting about the latest events in Libya usually always includes at least one line about how Libyan National Army (LNA) General Haftar is allegedly “Russian-backed”, which is meant to turn him into a bogeyman in the minds of the West’s intended infowar audience. Haftar used to be patronized by the US (where he spent years of his life after fleeing Libya following a failed plot to overthrow Gaddafi) until “going rogue” a few years back and behaving much more independently in pursuit of what he genuinely believes to be his homeland’s true national interests.

Libya's internationally recognised government in Tripoli has declared a military alert after eastern forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Haftar said they had moved towards the western part of the country.

A brief skirmish between Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) and forces allied to Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, the head of the Tripoli-based administration, was reported on Wednesday evening near a town south of the capital.

"Right now they [there] are clashes south of Tripoli ... in Gharyan," LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari told the UAE-based al-Arabiya channel.

No casualty figures or details were immediately available.

The oil-rich country, which has been in turmoil since the NATO-backed removal of its long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, has at least two rival administrations: one based in Tripoli, and another in the eastern city of Tobruk, which is allied with Haftar.

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, a 40-year veteran of Libyan politics and longtime CIA asset, on Thursday ordered his self-styled Libyan National Army (NLA) to advance on the densely populated capital, Tripoli, where the United Nations-backed government is seated.

In the aftermath of the “humanitarian intervention” led by NATO in support of jihadists seeking to oust longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, various factions have vied for power in the war-torn nation, once the wealthiest in Africa. According to the Special Monitoring Mission to Libya, forces loyal to Haftar, a former CIA asset, now control more than 77 percent of the country.

The army behind Libya's UN-backed government has announced a counteroffensive to defend Tripoli, vowing to reclaim all areas seized by forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Haftar, who have been marching on the outskirts of the capital.

Colonel Mohamed Gnounou told reporters in Tripoli on Sunday that the counteroffensive, dubbed Volcano of Anger, was aimed at "purging all Libyan cities of aggressor and illegitimate forces".

The announcement came as Haftar's forces said they conducted the first air raid on a Tripoli suburb as part of their aim to overthrow the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and take control of Tripoli.

There is no military solution to the Libya conflict, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo stressed

Libya has been in a state of the constant chaos since the NATO intervention in 2011. After the fall of the government of Muammar Gaddafi, the country fell into the hands of warrying armed factions, many of which were linked to radical Islamist groups. Al-Qaeda and then ISIS strengthened and expanded their presence in the country. The erupted humanitarian crisis has never been fully overcome. A high level of violence, crime and unsolved humanitarian issues turned Libya in one of the key hubs of arms, drugs and even trafficking. A large number of the refugees moving to Europe uses Libya as a transfer point.

Forces loyal to rival Libyan army commander Khalifa Hifter said Saturday they seized control of the main airport in Libya's capital Tripoli, two days after Hifter ordered his forces to seize the seat of Libya's U.N.-backed government.

Hifter's media office said in a post online that they took full control of the Tripoli international airport and were working to secure the facility. They posted photos of troops apparently inside the airport, saying "we are standing at the heart of the Tripoli international airport."

Hifter's offensive on Tripoli could plunge the oil-rich country into another spasm of violence, possibly the worst since the 2011 civil war that toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country is governed by rival authorities: The internationally backed government in Tripoli and the government in the east, which Hifter is aligned with. Each is backed by an array of militias.

The only functioning airport in the Libyan capital of Tripoli has been hit in an air raid, local TV and several agencies report, citing eyewitnesses. Heavy fighting broke out between the forces of the country's two governments.
A military aircraft belonging to the Libyan National Army forces has reportedly targeted Mitiga airport, located in the Libyan capital’s eastern suburb. Commanded by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar the group challenged the government in Tripoli for power.

The Libyan authorities confirmed that the airport was closed following the airstrike, but provided no additional information on casualties or damage resulting from it. Mitiga has been the only airport used for international flights since the capital’s international airport was destroyed back in 2014.

Libya is back in the headlines after one of its two competing governments sent troops towards Tripoli. If another bloodbath happens there, it will be the inevitable result of the 2011 NATO bombing campaign, an expert told RT.
The Northern African country was once stable and quite prosperous thanks to large revenues from oil trade. But since 2011, when NATO supported a militant uprising and helped topple, then kill, longtime strongman leader Muammar Gaddafi, it remains a fractured failed state. Last week, the unending feuds between rival factions escalated, with Khalifa Haftar, a powerful military commander, launching an offensive against his rivals from the UN-recognized government in Tripoli.

The general is unlikely to immediately heed calls for a political settlement, believes US political commentator and historian Gerald Horne. This may escalate into a major battle in the capital.

U.S. military officials say American forces will temporarily leave Libya three days after a renewed flareup of fighting between rival armed groups.

Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, head of U.S. Africa Command, said in a statement Sunday "the security realities on the ground in Libya are growing increasingly complex and unpredictable."

He did not say where U.S. forces will relocate to.

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) commander Thomas D. Waldhauser said that the decision to redeploy US forces was made "due to increased unrest". According to him, the situation in Libya has deteriorated and American troops are no longer safe there.

Libyan media released footage showing the temporary redeployment of the US Africa Command's military personnel.

READ MORE: US Evacuates Personnel From Libya Due To Increased Unrest — Report

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) commander Thomas D. Waldhauser said that the decision to redeploy US forces was made "due to increased unrest". According to him, the situation in Libya has deteriorated and American troops are no longer safe there.

Libyan media released footage showing the temporary redeployment of the US Africa Command's military personnel.

READ MORE: US Evacuates Personnel From Libya Due To Increased Unrest — Report

The Libyan National Army under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar declared on Saturday a no-fly zone for combat aircraft in the country’s western part, where it is mounting an offensive against Tripoli, the Al Arabiya TV channel reported citing the military.

"The Libyan army declares the western region of the country a military operation zone and imposes a ban on combat aircraft flights in the area," the military said in a communique. "We will carry out strikes against any airports in the west from where sorties are made.".

The leader of the Libyan National Army, Khalifa Haftar, has launched a military operation to ‘liberate’ the capital of Tripoli where the UN-backed government is based. He has reportedly ordered strict observance of purity of arms, and that no civilians are to be harmed.

While the UN recognizes a government based in Tripoli, that government has never been able to bring order to post-war Libya, and never controlled whole swaths of the country. In its place, various warlords controlled various regions, and human trafficking and the slave trade returned to the country for the first time in over a century.

Eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar has ordered his troops to move on the capital Tripoli, seat of the UN-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
In an audio address broadcast to his troops and published on Facebook, Haftar ordered all army units to “advance to Tripoli,” and free the capital from “militias and terrorists.” The Thursday address came hours after Haftar’s forces captured the town of Gharyan, 100km south of the capital.

Haftar also vowed to protect foreigners, civilians and those surrendering to his troops, promising to ensure their “safety and security.”

Drone-filmed footage shows scores of Haftar's Libyan National Army (NLA) vehicles en route to the capital, most of them machine-gun-armed 'technicals.'

Fears were mounting of renewed civil war in Libya after militias allied to the government in Tripoli captured scores of troops from a powerful rival force, and the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned he was ending a visit to the country “with a heavy heart and deeply concerned”.

Guterres suggested a key meeting with eastern commander, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, had not resulted in assurances from the strongman leader to avoid an escalation of tensions.

“I leave Libya with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli. The UN is committed to facilitating a political solution and, whatever happens, the UN is committed to supporting the Libyan people,” Guterres said in a tweet late on Friday.

“Shutting them up. That’s what it’s about. The hangman’s drop, the crackle of the firing squad, and their secrets go to the grave. Saddam Hussein didn’t get the chance to tell us about his dealings with the US and German companies who provided the gas he used on the Kurds. And now Gaddafi’s spymaster Abdullah al-Senussi will be shot in Libya before he has a chance to tell us about the cosy relationship he had with our Western security services when he liaised between his boss, the CIA and MI6.”

US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford issued a statement Monday denying weekend media reports that the US plans to leave around 1,000 troops in Syria, saying the reports are “factually incorrect.”

Dunford presented the current planned “residual force” as 200, saying that this hadn’t changed since February. The US announced 200 would stay on February 21, but on February 22 officially increased that number to 400.

It’s not clear from Dunford’s statement where the “incorrect” aspect of the new report, which came out of a Wall Street Journal, exists. That report suggested that the 1,000 figure was not yet finalized, but was being discussed. Dunford’s comments didn’t include any details on what is actually being discussed, but just that nothing was finalized.

Libya is coming apart again — though of course it was never put back together in the first place after NATO's regime change war to topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 in the first place. Since then it's been a jihadist wasteland of three, or at times up to four, competing governments vying for control of land and resources.

And now, as Bloomberg reports this week "Libya’s most powerful warlord has his sights on the capital" of Tripoli and "even his international backers are nervous." Who are Khalifa Haftar's international backers? He was for a couple decades believed to be on the CIA's payroll while living in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C. in exile during Gaddafi's rule. He's also financed by the UAE and quickly emerged as a main player collecting the spoils in the aftermath of the US-French-NATO bombing campaign in support of the rebels.

Bloomberg reports the growing alarm of his international backers:

The British newspaper The Telegraph has thrown into the media space another anti-Russian misinformation about the alleged “presence” in Libya of “mercenaries from Russia”.

What is interesting: The Telergaph newspaper itself writes directly that the allegations about “hundreds of mercenaries” of the “Russian PMC Wagner” in Libya are based on rumors.

Nevertheless, the newspaper draws far-reaching conclusions from false rumors.

The newspaper claims that the “mercenaries from Russia” support the Commander of the Libyan National Army, Khalifa Haftar, in operations against terrorists in Libya in order to ensure the “economic expansion” of Moscow in Africa.

The Telergaph argues that Russia wants to prevent the West from controlling the flow of Libyan oil that goes to Europe.

Similar fake news, soaring from the newspaper pages of foggy Albion, fly in flocks in the vast media of different countries.

Experts break their heads: where are the terrorists fleeing from Syria?

And here's the answer: to Libya!

In the north of which is rich in natural resources Libyan territory.
Ahead - Europe, the future theater of war of terrorists, in the south - the African continent, where they can always, unfortunately, find bastards for dollars, ready to kill anyone anywhere.

Libya is a huge country at the crossroads of Europe and Africa. The “Sahel belt” of African and Arab countries stretches from Mauritania to Somalia. This is where the American AFRICOM is preparing new ranges for the war.

And the main question asked by the experts: WHO CONTRIBUTES TO THEIR MOVEMENT?

Answer: American and European intelligence services of the NATO alliance. That same "peacekeeping" alliance that bombed the Libyan Jamahiriya in 2011.

And again the questions ...
Who is trying to legalize the Islamic State in Libya?

Who is trying to do this through future elections in Libya?

Libya’s biggest oil field resumed production, adding another complication to OPEC’s effort to trim a global supply glut.

Sharara resumed production and is expected to reach 80,000 barrels in one day, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media. Regular output will be fully restored in the coming days, now that the site has been re-secured after a three-month occupation at the site, state energy producer National Oil Co. said in a statement.

The field in southern Libya has a capacity of 300,000 barrels of crude a day. It was shut down in December after guards and armed residents seized it over financial demands and was then taken over last month by forces loyal to eastern militia leader Khalifa Haftar.

Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) has been accused of war crimes and violent abuses in Libya’s south after fresh gains in the area, including a much-coveted oil field.

The LNA, whose forces are vying for control over Libya’s neglected and oil-rich south, is fighting on behalf of an eastern-based government, one of two rival administrations.

On Thursday, Haftar’s fighters took the strategic town of Murzuq after a two-week assault, boosting the eastern government’s authority in the south.

And then on Friday, the forces seized control of the nearby al-Feel oil field, the second such facility in recent weeks.

Forces of East Libya-based commander Khalifa Haftar have killed 19 people and burned dozens of houses in southern Libya, a Libyan lawmaker claimed Monday.

In statements to a local television, Mohammad Adam Lino said around 90 houses have been burnt to ashes by Haftar's forces.

"They burnt down 90 houses, including those of my brothers and father," said Lino, a member of the Tobruk-based parliament.

He added that the bodies of 19 people had been transferred to hospital in Merzek region in southern Libya.

Last month, Haftar's forces launched a military offensive in southern Libya on the claim of fighting al-Qaeda and Daesh militants and clear the area of Chadian rebel groups.