PM says bombing will stop when extremists surrender

Libya’s prime minister has refused a UN call to halt two days of air strikes against rebel-held positions in Tripoli as the country’s civil war escalates, The UK Guardian reports.

The bombing has seen the city’s Mitiga airport shut down, worsening a conflict that has already torn the country apart, displaced 400,000 people and threatened involvement by outside powers.

The prime minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, head of the internationally recognised government, told UN envoy Bernadino León that Tripoli is held by extremists and the bombing will stop only when they surrender.

In turn, Omar al-Hasi, leader of Libya Dawn, whose militias control the capital, has accused the elected government of being led by devotees of Muammar Gaddafi, overthrown in the 2011 revolution.

Damage from the air strikes, concentrated on the airport, has been light, with one bomb striking homes on the perimeter, but the psychological effect has been profound, with the few international flights still operating suspended.

Fighting has racked the country since Libya Dawn seized Tripoli in August, obliging the newly elected parliament to flee to the eastern city of Tobruk.

Since then, pro-government forces have fought two separate but interconnected campaigns against rebels in Tripoli and Benghazi, Libya’s second city, which had been held by Islamist forces.

In Benghazi, air power has proved the decisive weapon in the government arsenal, wearing down Islamist brigades including Ansar al-Sharia, which was blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by the UN last week.

Al-Thinni hopes bombing will give his forces the same advantage in the battle for Tripoli, demanding Libya Dawn disarm and hand over “perpetrators of criminal acts”.

Meanwhile, Libya Dawn, a coalition of Islamist brigades and militias from western coastal towns including Misrata, is fighting government forces on a jagged front south and west of Tripoli.

The international community has been content to remain largely on the sidelines, but some diplomats worry that the war may spill over the country’s borders. Libya’s government accuses Qatar and Turkey of aiding Libya Dawn, while Dawn accuses Egypt and the United Arab Emirates of arming government forces.

León, appointed to mediate a peace deal, said he fears the bombing of Tripoli will “undermine efforts to resolve the crisis through peaceful means”.

He hopes to mediate a ceasefire coupled with agreement to form a unity government, but prospects for a deal appear slight with both sides confident they can win the war.

Al-Thinni’s government thinks its monopoly of Libya’s all-important oil revenues gives it economic power to match the growing strength of its army and, lately, air force. This week, pro-government forces from Zintan captured the strategically important town of Kikla, south of Tripoli, saying they will move on the capital.

Dawn is equally defiant, promising reinforcements from Misrata to turn the tide at Kikla. Hasi announced that the air strikes have ended the possibility of negotiations, saying there would now be “a policy of war and confrontation, and we are the ones who will win, God willing”

--Punch News