TRIPOLI: Rocket fire by forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar against the Libyan capital’s sole functioning airport wounded four civilians overnight, the UN-recognised government said Sunday.
The strikes coincided with the arrival of a Libyan plane carrying pilgrims back from Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Three pilgrims, including a woman, were among four civilians wounded, said Wedad Abu Niran, a spokesman for the health ministry of the Government of National Accord (GNA).
Airport director Lotfi al-Tabib said Mitiga’s runway was damaged and a Libyan Airlines plane was hit by shrapnel, putting it out of service.
Flights have been suspended “until further notice”, he said.
As of yesterday, flights will be diverted to Misrata airport 200 kilometres east of Tripoli, the airport said in a Facebook post.
The UN mission in Libya Unsmil denounced in a statement “a direct threat to the lives of civilians” and said the perpetrators “will face accountability”.
Unsmil investigators toured Mitiga following the strikes and found that “four projectiles struck the civilian parts of the airport”, three in the parking lot and one on the runway.
“At least two crew members were injured while rushing out of the plane,” it said. The overnight rocket attack on Mitiga was the seventh since July, Unsmil said.
“These vicious attacks are designed to sow fear, create chaos and disrupt operations at the only working airport in the Libyan capital Tripoli,” it added.
Unsmil is “documenting the incident for onward transmission to the International Criminal Court and the Security Council”, it said.
“Indiscriminate attacks that result in death or injury to civilians may constitute war crimes.”
Mitiga is a former airbase a few kilometres east of Tripoli and under the control of the GNA. The GNA denounced a “terrorist attack” it said was launched by Haftar forces.
The strongman’s self-styled Libyan National Army launched an offensive on April 4 to conquer Tripoli.
The two sides have since been embroiled in a stalemate on the capital’s southern outskirts. Haftar’s forces have accused the GNA of using Mitiga for “military ends”.
On August 15, a strike on Mitiga killed a guard and wounded several security agents, and last week the airport closed temporarily after a rocket strike that hit two planes.
Haftar’s forces say they are targeting “Turkish drones” they claim are being launched from the airport to conduct strikes on their troops in the south of Tripoli.
Since April, fighting between pro-GNA and pro-Haftar forces has killed at least 1,093 people and wounded 5,752, while some 120,000 others have been displaced, according to the World Health Organisation. Libya has been mired in chaos since a Nato-backed uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. – AFP
