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Turkey’s foreign ministry said on Sunday it would consider Libyan general Khalifa Haftar’s forces as “legitimate targets” if they continue their attacks against his diplomatic missions and interests in Libya.
Turkey supports the internationally recognized Government of National Unity (KEE). It has signed a military cooperation agreement with KEE, which is trying to repel an attack by Haftar’s forces.
Ankara considers Haftar’s forces, backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Russia, “coup plotters.”
“If he [διπλωματικές] “Our missions and interests in Libya are under attack, we will consider legitimate targets of the Haftar forces,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, also accusing the United Nations of failing to take action against Haftar’s attacks.
“It is unacceptable for the United Nations to remain silent on this massacre,” he said. “The countries that provide military, economic and political assistance to Haftar are responsible for the suffering of the Libyan people and for the chaos and instability in which the country is being dragged.”
The Turkish Foreign Ministry also said that the attacks that took place early yesterday morning at the Mytiga airport in Tripoli, as part of an intensive artillery fire bombardment of the capital, constitute war crimes.
On Thursday, Turkey and Italy said the area around their embassies in Tripoli had been bombed.
Dozens of rockets landed in Tripoli, killing at least four civilians and causing serious damage to the Libyan capital’s airport, for which the KEE blamed Haftar’s forces today.
The UN mission in Libya (Manul) voiced its grief on “a sight that became very familiar but terrifying” on its Twitter account after General Haftar, a powerful man in eastern Libya, launched an attack ago more than a year. occupation of the libyan capital.
At least four civilians, including a five-year-old girl, were killed yesterday in the popular districts of Abu Slim Bab and Ben Gasr in the southern part of the city, where 16 other people were injured, according to a spokesman for the KEE Health Ministry. , Amin el-Hashemi. .
In a statement, the Tripoli-based KEE attributed the attacks to its rival, General Haftar.
Mytiga airport was also severely damaged by the attacks that continued this morning. Photos showing the damaged skeleton of an airplane, buildings and the airport runway that have suffered serious damage have been published on social networks.
According to an airport authority, two civil aircraft were hit, as well as the passenger compartments.
“War criminal (Khalifa Haftar) forces fired more than 100 rockets and missiles at residential neighborhoods in the center of the capital Tripoli on Saturday,” KEE said on Facebook.
Although it has been closed for months due to repeated injuries, “Mytiga International Airport has been the target of dozens of fires, injuring a civilian aircraft that would take off to repatriate citizens who had been expelled abroad due to the new pandemic of coronation”. KEE said.
“The airport’s main fuel tank was directly hit by a rocket,” causing a fire and thick smoke, the Libyan National Petroleum Company (NOC) said.
Four of the ten tanks were completely destroyed by fire. The other six suffered serious damage, the NOC said on its website.
Minul expressed “a strong condemnation of the attacks on civilians and political infrastructure” and called for justice to be done.
As of Wednesday, a total of 19 people, 17 civilians and two police officers, had been killed and another 66 wounded in the launch of rockets at various districts of the capital, according to KEE.
However, the latter estimated that General Haftar’s “bloodthirsty plan” to seize power “is coming to an end.”
“The crazy actions (…) of the last days (…) are proof of their weakness and despair after the successive defeats of their paramilitaries and mercenaries.”
Haftar’s forces have suffered heavy casualties in recent weeks.
KEE forces have recaptured two strategic cities in the west since mid-April and surround Tarragona, Haftar’s largest rear base, some 80 km southeast of Tripoli.
“We no longer pay attention to the bold condemnation of the international community, which is unable to name the attacker, let alone hold him accountable or detain those he supports,” KEE said.
Over the months, the involvement of foreign armies has exacerbated the conflict with the United Arab Emirates and Russia in the Haftar camp, as well as with Turkey and its growing support for KEE.
The two camps accuse each other of continuing to receive arms shipments from their supporters despite commitments made by many countries in January during the Berlin international conference on Libya.
Source: RES
