A senior leader in the Marshal Khalifa Haftar-led Libyan National Army (LNA) said resolving the battle to liberate the capital, Tripoli, from the grip of armed militias loyal to Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) is about to happen soon.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that LNA unit’s control over Kazirma and wild neighborhoods, southern Tripoli, means that forces are advancing according to the plan to liberate the city.
“The final battle is imminent, and the invasion is near,” he stressed, adding that there will be a radical change in the field.
He pointed to LNA forces’ success in expelling enemy forces from the currently abandoned Tripoli International Airport, of which these militias always threaten to attack.
LNA’s Military Information Division released video footage of some of the sites its army units have taken control over and have secured following fierce clashes.
However, it refrained from publishing other sites due to the military operations’ confidentiality and to protect the soldiers.
The LNA revealed in a statement to its media center the direction to which the armed militias are heading in Misrata to withdraw, pointing out that this decision, which was discussed during a recent meeting for Misrata operation room, came from information gathered from the field.
It considered Misrata militias’ thinking about leaving Tripoli “may be an attempt to maneuver,” but their exit from Tripoli is bound to happen, sooner or later, because this is the result of the battle.
“These militias were surprised by a long war it is not used to deal with and modern military tactics that led to more losses for the Turkish operating room and its officers and drones,” the LNA statement added.
