Haftar's forces prepare ground attack on Libyan capital

General Khalifa Haftar, who was recently brought back by the disputed Libyan parliament in Tobruk to serve in the Libyan army, has announced that his forces are preparing to launch a ground attack to “liberate” Tripoli from Islamist forces, Al-Amat Online reported on Friday.

The internationally recognised but legally dissolved parliament based in Tobruk, which is led by Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni, has charged Haftar with expelling the armed militants supported by Libya’s Islamists. The renegade general said that thousands of soldiers are preparing to enter the capital city, currently under the control of the Dawn of Libya militants.

Al-Thinni stated earlier this week that his forces were surrounding Tripoli and preparing to “liberate” the city from Islamists. It is worth noting that General Haftar launched Operation Dignity in the eastern city of Benghazi in mid-May in order to get rid of the Islamists there, vowing to uproot them from the country. Egypt and the UAE are thought to have offered his forces aerial support.

Libya is witnessing a bloody conflict between rivalling militias, while on the political level two governments with different parliaments are governing the country. There is Al-Thinni’s government and an elected parliament in Tobruk, which the Libyan Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional, and another other government in Tripoli led by Omar Al-Hasi and the General National Congress.