Troops loyal to Libya's internationally recognised government on the outskirts of Misrata, Libya. Photo:Reuters
41 Libyan prisoners freed on Eid day, as conflicts see escalation
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | AUGUST 1st 2020
As part of an amnesty on Libya’s Eid al-Adha holiday, 41 teenage prisoners, previously fighters, have been released. They were only few among hundreds of others to have been captured during Haftar’s failed seizure of the capital of Tripoli.
The report of the freed prisoners comes from Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Abdelwahed, who had reported in from al-Zawiya. This isn’t the first reported release of prisoners in Libya since the escalation of violence, as back in late March, over 450 prisoners were released by the governing forces as a means of curbing coronavirus infection rates, according to the country’s authorities.
Further reports claim that Egypt is standing by, ready to support Haftar’s troops with its own forces in order to fight back against the Turkish-backed, UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). Egypt claimed that it would proceed to launch a military intervention if the GNA were to attempt to capture the coastal city of Sirte, which is at present being held by Haftar. At this rate, conflicts are at the very edge of severe escalation in the oil-rich country.
Oil facilities in Libya are also being acquired for Haftar, by Russian mercenaries, who are acting as Moscow’s proxy in the civil war. The rallying of these external forces can only exacerbate the rising tensions between both sides.
On Saturday, Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) minister of state for foreign affairs had spoken out against Turkey, stating that they ought not be meddling with Arabian affairs. This was referring to what the Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said in an interview with the Qatari TV station Al Jazeera, and his criticism of the UAE and their “malicious” actions in Libya, backing Haftar’s forces alongside Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
“Abu Dhabi does what it does in Libya, does what it does in Syria. All of it is being recorded. At the right place and time, the accounts will be settled,” Akar said. “It is necessary to ask Abu Dhabi, where this hostility, where these intentions, where this jealousy comes from.”
“Relations are not managed by threats and there is no place for colonialist delusions in this day and age,” Gargash wrote on Twitter, in response.
