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Libyan government vows to defeat rebel general after recapturing Tripoli

A fighter loyal to the GNA celebrates after victory in a battle for the capital - Reuters
A fighter loyal to the GNA celebrates after victory in a battle for the capital - Reuters

Libya's internationally recognised government vowed to defeat Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar after its troops recaptured key districts of Tripoli, effectively ending a 14-month siege of the capital city.

Turkish backed-troops with the Government of National Accord said they had secured all of Tripoli's entry and exit points early on Thursday morning, a day after they seized the city's derelict but bitterly contested international airport.

"Our heroic forces have full control of Greater Tripoli right up to the city limits," Mohamad Gnounou, spokesman for GNA forces, said in a Facebook post.

Separately Reuters cited a source in Gen Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) saying that it would complete its withdrawal from the Tripoli districts of Ain Zara, Abu Salim and Qasr Ben Gashir on Thursday.

LNA troops are believed to be consolidating around the town of Tarhuna, southeast of Tripoli.  The announcements came as international pressure builds for the two sides to accept a truce. The UN said on Monday that both sides had agreed to resume ceasefire talks.

Fayez-al Sarraj, the prime minister of the GNA, said after meeting with Turkey's  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara that his government would continue to fight until it had secured the rest of the country.

"Our fight continues and we are determined to defeat the enemy, impose state control on the whole of the homeland and destroy all those who jeopardise the construction of a civil, democratic and modern state," he said.

Gen Haftar, who rules eastern and southern Libya in tandem with a parliament that split with the GNA in 2016, launched an assault on Tripoli in April 2019, vowing to root out "terrorist militias" backed by the GNA.

The LNA, with military backing from several foreign countries including the UAE, Egypt and Russia, succeeded in seizing the city's southern suburbs but became bogged in a war of attrition before it could reach the city centre.

The tide of the war turned after Turkey intervened on the side of the GNA at the beginning of this year, deploying drones, air-defence systems, and thousands of Syrian fighters in support of Tripoli.

The success of the Turkish intervention has shown how foreign players have grown increasingly important in Libya's war.  Hundreds of Russian fighters, believed to be with the Kremlin-linked Wagner private military company, have been seen accompanying the LNA pull back.

Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that large numbers of Russian and Soviet made anti-personnel mines not previously recorded in Libya had been found planted in civilian areas abandoned by the LNA.

“Any use of internationally banned landmines is unconscionable,” said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch and chair of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. “Those fighting in Tripoli should halt using landmines and start clearing them to avoid further harm to life and limb.”