Heavy fighting raged in the Libyan capital on Saturday as eastern forces made a new push to advance inside the city controlled by the internationally recognized government.
The Libya National Army (LNA) force of Khalifa Haftar, who is allied to a parallel government in the east, started an offensive to take Tripoli almost two months ago but has not breached the city's southern defenses.
Hiftar's LNA forces continue to make progress around Tripoli:
In Tripoli the LNA (Libyan National Army) forces are methodically eliminating militia fortifications in the southern suburbs of the city. This has been unnerving for the many Islamic militias that have controlled Tripoli since 2011. They are in a panic because of the LNA advance and use of tactics the militias had never encountered before. Adding to the panic has been another LNA attack from the east, which the militias were not really prepared for. They believed the bulk of the LNA forces available for the Tripoli operation were stalled south of the city. The LNA took their time and quietly assembled a mobile force for a move against the eastern approaches to Tripoli. The LNA kept an eye on militia deployments and apparently has a reliable network of informants inside the city.
And note that Turkey supports the GNA. Which should tell us they are bad actors.
If Libya is to recover from the 2011 civil war and NATO intervention against Khadaffi that has been suppressed but lengthened by foreign interference seeking to deny any faction's victory, somebody has to finally win the civil war and move forward.
Hiftar seems like the best bet who will also fight jihadis. And on the plus side in favor of Hiftar over the GNA, western Libya has a strong jihadi component in its internationally recognized government.
Hiftar isn't perfect but I don't see him as the disaster so many seem to paint him as, and the GNA is far worse than the UN is willing to admit.
Waiting for the perfect isn't working out, now is it?
