TRIPOLI, Oct 6 (NNN-Xinhua) — Libya’s east-based army announced early Sunday that it has launched airstrikes on the forces of its rival UN-backed government in the city of Sirte, some 450 km east of the capital Tripoli.
“The Air Force of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces have launched successive airstrikes on four military targets in Sirte, which are weapons and ammunition stores used by the terrorist militias (referring to UN-backed government’s forces),” Ahmad al-Mismari, the army’s spokesperson, said in a statement.
The announcement came a day after the army said it has made progress in southern Tripoli against the government.
“The army units have advanced in a number of axes in the capital after fierce clashes this morning, and took control of new sites that will be revealed as soon as instructions are issued,” the army’s information office said in a statement.
The army has seized a number of military vehicles, weapons and ammunition of the government’s forces, and also captured a number of their troops, it said.
The east-based army and the government have been fighting in and around Tripoli since early April over the control of the capital.
The violence killed and injured thousands of people, and displaced nearly 120,000 civilians.
Libya has been plagued by political division and escalating violence ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. — NNN-XINHUA