25-04-2024 05:53 PM Jerusalem Timing

Militants Step up Assault on Libya’s Main Airport

Militants Step up Assault on Libya’s Main Airport

A group of militants on Sunday stepped up their assault on Libya’s main airport, two days after the collapse of a truce with rival ex-rebels who control the facility

A group of militants on Sunday stepped up their assault on Libya's main airport, two days after the collapse of a truce with rival ex-rebels who control the facility, a security official said.
  
Local residents said the upsurge in violence killed at least one civilian when a rocket hit a house in the capital's Qasr Ben Gheshir district near Tripoli international airport.
  
"The airport was attacked this morning with mortar rounds, rockets and tank fire," airport security official Al-Jilani al-Dahesh told AFP. "It was the most intense bombardment so far."
  
Dahesh said the militia which controls the airport, based in Zintan, southwest of the capital responded with heavy fire.

By midday on Sunday, fighting had spread to other sites on the airport road that are controlled by the Zintan militia. Loud explosions were heard in the city centre, 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) away, as battles raged along the airport road.

The militants have dubbed the operation to crush the Zintan militia "Libya's Dawn".