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Vol 60 No 14

Published 12th July 2019


Libya

Air strikes risk escalation

Bombings in support of Haftar's army not only killed detained African would-be migrants but increased the prospects of ever-greater foreign involvement

When Libya's eastern military strongman, General Khalifa Haftar, launched his offensive to capture Tripoli on 4 April, he hoped for a blitzkrieg. What he got was a battle of attrition. Having done a deal, some reports say, with some of Tripoli's militia leaders not to stand in the way of his Libyan National Army (LNA) militia, he expected the assault to last only a few days. But the Tripoli militia rank and file had different ideas to their leaders and were determined to defend the capital from invasion from the east.

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