The GNA launched 17 airstrikes to recapture Tarhouna, aiming at Haftar forces and their military vehicles, Sunday, April 19, 2020. Photo:AA
The Libyan Civil War, Tarhouna Developments
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily APRIL 20th 2020
The ongoing battle for Libya’s capitol city, in the spurs of conflict between the forces of the country’s internationally recognised government and the Eastern-based renegade military commander known only as Khalifa Haftar, is growing more brutal by the day. It may be coming to a close soon, however, with Tripoli forces amassing, and word of them soon knocking on Haftar’s doorstep having spread.
Libya had been in the heat of the present Civil war against Haftar since 2014, when he was the commander of the Libyan army. A man’s who’s been described by The New Yorker as “Libya’s most potent warlord”. Famously an anti-Islamist, Haftar had originally started a campaign against the General National Congress (CNG) - the legislative authority of Libya, for at least two years, not long after the end of the first Libyan Civil War. The purpose of Haftar’s campaign was to allow elections to take place, which would serve to replace the CNG. It was due to this that the present civil war had broken out.
Libya’s government had recently made the public announcement that its forces had successfully managed to kill eight fighters loyal to Haftar in Western Libya, after having bolstered up their assault on all of the commander’s forward bases. The announcement of the incident had come on Saturday, from military spokesman Mohamed Gnunu. A particular key support base belonging to Haftar that they had advanced against was Tarhouna.
The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) has on several occasions attempted to turn Tarhouna (located 65km South-East of the capital) over to oppose Haftar and side with them, but thus far, all such attempts have proven to be unsuccessful.
Tarhouna is an incredibly valuable asset to Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) forces, supplying community manpower towards the campaign, which has thus far leaned rather severely on air support, specifically from both contractors from the Russian military, as well as the United Arab Emirates.
On Saturday night, the night of the announcements, several airstrikes had been carried out in Tarhouna against Haftar’s militia, according to a military source close to the Volcano of Rage Operation – an operation publicly announced in early April by GNA military spokesman Colonel Mohamed Gnounou, of which the goal is to reclaim the territories in Tripoli taken by the LNA through a heated counteroffensive. This information would line up with a witness report from Reuters, taken from a Tarhouna resident, who claimed to have heard loud blasts and clashes in an outlying area of the town.
"The latest developments are threatening the very existence of Haftar's forces in the whole of western Libya," said Mahmoud Abdelwahed of Al Jazeera, while reporting from Tripoli. "The city of Tarhouna is a major stronghold for Haftar after they lost the city of Gharyan last June. It's important to note that the central command of Haftar's forces is now located in Tarhouna and it is from there that Egyptian, Emirati and Russian military experts are running Haftar's offensive against Tripoli."
The United Nations, as well as nine countries, had all called for a ceasefire in Libya as of March 17, in order to allow health authorities to intervene and help fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus, during the time of pandemic outbreak. This, along with numerous other offers and efforts made by the UN have all fallen through, with no success in calling a truce between the warring factions.
By Patryk Krych | © The World Daily 2020
