The Volcano of Rage Operation led by the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord (GNA) has claimed seizing Al-Watiyah airbase but the Libyan National Army (LNA) was quick to announcing that it has foiled the assault.
Despite agreeing on a humanitarian truce to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, fierce clashes took place Wednesday between the LNA of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and forces loyal to Fayez al-Sarraj's GNA.
Most battlefronts inside and outside the capital Tripoli witnessed heavy battles.
Commander of the GNA joint military operations room Osama Goueili stated that his forces controlled most of Al-Watiyah airbase, and arrested army personnel in retaliation for the continuous shelling of Tripoli.
The LNA, however, said in a statement released by its Military Information Division that it thwarted the operation.
Militias backing the GNA suffered heavy material losses and casualties after the LNA airforce targeted the enemy, the statement read.
The division added that the Army took seven mercenaries captive and seized some military vehicles loaded with arms and ammunition.
During a press conference, LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari slammed “Turkey’s failed attempt to occupy Libya.”
Turkish army members and mercenaries have recently held secret meetings in several Libyan cities to reinforce terrorist militias in the Western Region, he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attempted but failed to achieve victory by attacking LNA forces and striking sites in Tarhuna, Misrata and Al-Watiyah, said Mismari.
The LNA spokesman stressed the Army’s commitment to the humanitarian truce but accused terrorist groups and the Turkish army of not abiding by it.
LNA Commander at the Ain Zara axis Major General Fawzi al-Mansouri appeared in a video where he slammed a Syrian mercenary loyal to Turkey.
The fighter was arrested following his injury at one of the capital’s battlefronts, and was sent to a field hospital for treatment.
Asharq Al-Awsat viewed the video in which Mansouri asks the captive for how long he had been injured. He replies that he had been wounded for the past 12 days and that pro-Sarraj militias had left him behind.
