ADDS HAFTAR’S FORCES TAKE CONTROL OF FORMER AIRPORT
By Hamdi Yildiz, Hussein Mahmoud Ragab Elkabany and Ali Semerci
TRIPOLI (AA) - Libya’s Tripoli-based government said Thursday it has recaptured the Yarmuk military camp south of the capital from forces led by Commander Khalifa Haftar.
The al-Sumud front supported the operation, a military source who declined to be named told Anadolu Agency.
Haftar’s forces said earlier Wednesday that they had captured the camp from UN-backed government forces.
The camp is in the Ain Zara area, which had been witnessing clashes between Haftar’s forces and government forces.
Haftar’s forces claimed early Thursday to have captured the former Tripoli International Airport from the UN-backed government.
“We have full control over Tripoli International Airport and our forces are currently trying to cut the main road between Tripoli and the east,” Ahmad Mismari, a spokesman for Haftar's forces, said at a press conference.
Libya has remained beset by turmoil since 2011, when a bloody NATO-backed uprising led to the ouster and death of President Muammar Gaddafi after four decades in power.
Since then, the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of power: one in the eastern city of Al-Bayda, with which Haftar is associated, and another in Tripoli, which enjoys the UN’s support.
*Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur