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Renewed war in Libya - splintered since Muammar Gaddafi's 2011
fall - threatens to disrupt oil and gas supplies, trigger more
migration to Europe, and wreck U.N. hopes for an election.
The eastern Libyan National Army (LNA) forces of Khalifa Haftar,
a former officer in Gaddafi's army, said 19 of their soldiers
had died in recent days as they closed in on the internationally
recognized government in Tripoli.
The United Nations said 2,800 people had been displaced by
clashes and many more could flee, though some were trapped.
The LNA has conducted air strikes on the south of the city as it
seeks to advance into the center from a disused airport.
But the government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj has armed
groups arriving from nearby Misrata to help block the LNA.
It reported 11 deaths without saying on which side.
Al-Serraj, 59, who comes from a wealthy business family, has run
the Tripoli government since 2016 as part of a U.N.-brokered
deal boycotted by Haftar.
PEACE MOVES IN DISARRAY
His LNA, allied with a parallel eastern administration based in
Benghazi, took the oil-rich south of Libya earlier this year
before its surprisingly fast push toward the coastal capital.
While that advance was straightforward through sparsely
populated areas, taking Tripoli is a far bigger challenge.
The violence has thrown into disarray a U.N. plan for an April
14-16 conference to plan elections as a way out of the anarchy
that has gripped Libya since the Western-backed toppling of
Gaddafi eight years ago.
The European Union joined the United Nations, United States and
G7 bloc in calling for a ceasefire, a halt to Haftar's advance
and return to political negotiations.
A contingent of U.S. forces evacuated at the weekend.
The U.N. mission to Libya called on Sunday for a truce for two
hours in southern Tripoli to evacuate civilians and wounded, but
it did not appear to have been heeded.
Haftar casts himself as a foe of extremism but is viewed by
opponents as a new dictator in the mould of Gaddafi, whose
four-decade rule saw torture, disappearances and assassinations.
Forces with the Tripoli government have announced an operation
to defend the capital called "Volcano of Anger".
Allied groups from Misrata along the coast have been moving
pickup trucks fitted with machine guns into Tripoli.
TRANSIT POINT
The LNA says it has 85,000 men, but this includes soldiers paid
by the central government that it hopes to inherit. Its elite
force, Saiqa (Lightning), numbers some 3,500, while Haftar's
sons also have well-equipped troops, LNA sources say.
Since NATO-backed rebels ousted Gaddafi, Libya has been a
transit point for hundreds of thousands of migrants trekking
across the Sahara in hope of reaching Europe across the sea.
Islamic State staged some high profile attacks in Tripoli last
year, but the militant group has largely retreated to the desert
of southern Libya since the loss of its former stronghold in
Sirte late in 2016.
France, which has close links to Haftar, said it had no prior
warning of his push for Tripoli and denied it was secretly
undermining the peace process, a diplomatic source said.
France established close relations with Haftar under the
Socialist government of Francois Hollande and his defense
minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
When President Emmanuel Macron named Le Drian his foreign
minister, Paris doubled down in its support to Haftar, in close
alignment with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which see him
as a bulwark against Islamists and have supported him
militarily, according to U.N. reports.
France's stance has created tensions with Italy, which has
sought to play a leading role to end the turmoil, which has
allowed Islamist militants and migrant smugglers to flourish.
(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami and Ayman al-Warfalli; Additional
reporting by Ulf Laessing in Cairo, Tom Miles in Geneva, Diane
Bartz in Washington, Robin Emmott in Luxembourg, Marine
Pennetier in Paris; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by
Kevin Liffey)
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