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Libya Crisis: Tensions Rise As Tripoli Airport Changes Hands
http://www.africaeagle.com/2014/08/libya-crisis-tensions-rise-as-tripoli.html
Libya's newly-elected parliament has condemned as terrorists the militia alliance which says it has captured Tripoli's international airport.
It said the alliance was now a legitimate target for the armed forces.
The alliance includes Islamists and fighters from the city of Misrata.
A spokesman for the militia said that the new parliament was illegitimate and called for the country's former governing body, the Islamist-dominated General National Council, to reconvene.
The reporters in Tripoli says there are uncomfirmed reports of battles continuing between rival armed groups on the outskirts of the city, and explosions can be heard.
The country has been by gripped by conflict between rival militias that spearheaded the 2011 uprising against long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. Several hundred people have died in a recent upsurge of fighting.
The militia alliance - which includes some Islamist fighters and others from the city of Misrata - said it had won control of the airport despite being targeted by mystery airstrikes for a second time this week.
The reported fall of the airport is a setback for the rival militia from the city of Zintan, allies of ×Gen Khalifa Haftar, who launched a campaign earlier this year against what he termed the "Islamist-dominated" government. They had controlled the airport for nearly three years.
Shortly afterwards the parliament, which is based in the eastern city of Tobruk because Tripoli and Benghazi are mostly outside government control, declared the victorious militias to be "terrorist organisations".
The statement did not include criticism of the Zintan militia, which now appears to have withdrawn from Tripoli.
Our correspondent says this omission suggests that the parliament has included them in some wider plan.
Source: BBC Africa
It said the alliance was now a legitimate target for the armed forces.
The alliance includes Islamists and fighters from the city of Misrata.
A spokesman for the militia said that the new parliament was illegitimate and called for the country's former governing body, the Islamist-dominated General National Council, to reconvene.
The reporters in Tripoli says there are uncomfirmed reports of battles continuing between rival armed groups on the outskirts of the city, and explosions can be heard.
The country has been by gripped by conflict between rival militias that spearheaded the 2011 uprising against long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. Several hundred people have died in a recent upsurge of fighting.
The militia alliance - which includes some Islamist fighters and others from the city of Misrata - said it had won control of the airport despite being targeted by mystery airstrikes for a second time this week.
The reported fall of the airport is a setback for the rival militia from the city of Zintan, allies of ×Gen Khalifa Haftar, who launched a campaign earlier this year against what he termed the "Islamist-dominated" government. They had controlled the airport for nearly three years.
Shortly afterwards the parliament, which is based in the eastern city of Tobruk because Tripoli and Benghazi are mostly outside government control, declared the victorious militias to be "terrorist organisations".
The statement did not include criticism of the Zintan militia, which now appears to have withdrawn from Tripoli.
Our correspondent says this omission suggests that the parliament has included them in some wider plan.
Source: BBC Africa
