Al-Jazeera.com :
Warplanes from Libya’s internationally recognised parliament in Tobruk have carried out air strikes on a Tripoli airport, a security official said, just hours before United Nations-backed peace talks were due to start in Morocco.
The jets hit an open area near the runway at Maitiga airport on Thursday but caused no major damage and the airport was operating normally, a security source at the airport told the Reuters news agency.
Libya’s legislators are split between the UN-recognised government in
the eastern city of Tobruk and rival, legally installed government in the capital, Tripoli.
The political turmoil fuelled rival militias and allowed fighters claiming association with ISIL to gain control of the cities of Sirte and Darna.
The UN is brokering the Morocco talks among the various factions and the two governments, with two other sessions planned in Algeria and Brussels next week.
A source from the Tripoli-based government told Al Jazeera that they had been given a mandate to push for a peace deal during the talks.
UN envoy Bernardino Leon told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that ending the conflict in Libya was “possible” but that the situation on the ground was “deteriorating rapidly”.
The international community, he said, must “move quickly to present a clearly articulated strategy in support of the Libyan state and the efforts of a national unity government in combating the growing threat of terrorism”.
The UN Security Council meeting came as Libya’s state-run National Oil declared itself inoperable at 11 oil fields after a series of attacks by rebels purportedly linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
The force majeure – a legal step shielding the company from liability if it cannot fulfil contracts for reasons beyond its control – was announced on Wednesday shortly after gunmen attacked the Dahra oil field near Libya’s central coast.
The attack on the oil field prompted a counterattack by government forces that included air strikes, said Mashallah al-Zewi, oil minister of the country’s Tripoli-based government.
Warplanes from Libya’s internationally recognised parliament in Tobruk have carried out air strikes on a Tripoli airport, a security official said, just hours before United Nations-backed peace talks were due to start in Morocco.
The jets hit an open area near the runway at Maitiga airport on Thursday but caused no major damage and the airport was operating normally, a security source at the airport told the Reuters news agency.
Libya’s legislators are split between the UN-recognised government in
the eastern city of Tobruk and rival, legally installed government in the capital, Tripoli.
The political turmoil fuelled rival militias and allowed fighters claiming association with ISIL to gain control of the cities of Sirte and Darna.
The UN is brokering the Morocco talks among the various factions and the two governments, with two other sessions planned in Algeria and Brussels next week.
A source from the Tripoli-based government told Al Jazeera that they had been given a mandate to push for a peace deal during the talks.
UN envoy Bernardino Leon told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that ending the conflict in Libya was “possible” but that the situation on the ground was “deteriorating rapidly”.
The international community, he said, must “move quickly to present a clearly articulated strategy in support of the Libyan state and the efforts of a national unity government in combating the growing threat of terrorism”.
The UN Security Council meeting came as Libya’s state-run National Oil declared itself inoperable at 11 oil fields after a series of attacks by rebels purportedly linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
The force majeure – a legal step shielding the company from liability if it cannot fulfil contracts for reasons beyond its control – was announced on Wednesday shortly after gunmen attacked the Dahra oil field near Libya’s central coast.
The attack on the oil field prompted a counterattack by government forces that included air strikes, said Mashallah al-Zewi, oil minister of the country’s Tripoli-based government.
