Libyan Civil War

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Tuesday night that it "condemned" what it describes as the "abduction" of the chief of staff to a senior politician in the capital Tripoli. The kidnapping is the latest in a series of incidents that have called into question the war - torn country's progress towards planned free and fair national polls in December, including a new collapse of talks on an election format. UNSMIL said in a statement on Twitter that it was "deeply concerned about the…

Putschist General Khalifa Haftar's so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) will not be subordinate to the current Libyan government, the warlord said on Monday. In a speech marking the 81st anniversary of the founding of the Libyan army, Haftar emphasized that his militia "will not be subject to any authority other than an authority that will be directly elected by the people." Haftar, who is based in the eastern city of Benghazi, added that his militia would resist any pressure sent in its direction and…

Turkey welcomes the resumption of the strategic road Misrata-Sirte, which connects eastern and western Libya, the Foreign Ministry said late on Saturday. "We welcome the official opening of the Misrata-Sirte coastal road on July 30, 2021, which has been closed for a long time," it said in a statement. Turkey also praised the efforts of the Presidential Council, National Unity Government (GNU), led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, the UN Support Mission in Libya and the 5 + 5 Joint…

The Libyan army said the militia loyal to Putist General Khalifa Haftar has a deadline of Saturday to resume the strategic coastal road that connects the country to the east and west. "We sent a letter to 5 + 5 Libya's Joint Military Commission giving them until Saturday (to inform Haftar's militia) to open the coastal road," Abdel-Hadi Darah, a spokesman for the Sirte-Jufra Operations Room, told Anadolu Agency (AA). The Joint Military Committee comprises five members from the internationally…

A Libyan militia leader accused of major human rights abuses and sanctioned by the United States was shot dead on Tuesday in eastern Benghazi province, officials said. Libyan officials said security forces looted Mohamed al-Kani's house in Benghazi to carry out an arrest warrant on charges of killing civilians. Libyan officials and the United States claim that al-Kani was responsible for the deaths of people found in mass graves last year in the western city of Tarhuna. Tarhuna, a strategic city about…

If Libya's national elections scheduled for December are delayed, the war-torn country will return to "square one" and unrest in 2011, the speaker said, with a new rival government likely to set up in the east. The election is seen in the West as a critical step in efforts to create stability in Libya, which has been in chaos since the NATO-backed uprising in 2011 against Muammar Gaddafi. Libya, a major oil and gas producer, was divided in 2014 between an internationally recognized government in the…

Regular Russian troops are now stationed in Libya, the head of the Democracy and Human Rights Foundation (DHRF), Emadeddin Muntasser, said on Friday as the UN and the international community called on mercenaries and foreign forces to withdraw from the war-torn country. . DHRF was told by sources from the Libyan Ministry of Defense who spoke on an anonymous level that ordinary Russian troops had been discovered near Jufra Airbase and provided evidence with confidential aerial photos and coordinates of…

The UN Special Envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, on Thursday rejected the lack of progress towards elections in the war-torn country in December later this year. Kubis accused "destroyers" of trying to prevent the holding of crucial elections to unite the divided North African nation, and the Security Council warned that any individual or group undermining the electoral process could be subject to UN sanctions. Kubis said at a ministerial meeting in the Council that he spoke to many key players during his…

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday opened a strategic naval base on the Mediterranean to "secure shipping companies," the presidency said. "It is the latest Egyptian military base on the Mediterranean and will focus on securing the northern and western front of the country," the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. The ceremony was attended by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and by the President of the Libyan Presidential Council, Mohamed…

Although preparations for Libya's elections at the end of the year have failed for the time being after members of a dialogue forum could not find common ground during the talks, the Libyan premiere on Saturday called for parliamentary and presidential elections at their scheduled time. "We urge all parties and the UN mission to fulfill their obligations to allow the public interest to prevail and to agree on a mechanism to ensure the timely conduct of elections," Abdul Hamid Dbeibah wrote on Twitter.…