A military plane was seen flying over Tripoli’s Mitiga International Airport as well as plumes of smoke rising into the sky, following airstrikes by Libyan National Army (LNA) forces on Monday.
LNA, that is controlling eastern Libya, is aiming to take over the territory from the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) including capital Tripoli, as the country has been split between the two rival governments since 2014.
The recent shelling of Mitiga airport was condemned by the UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame as a “serious violation of humanitarian law.” Last week UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres travelled to Libya to meet with Head of Libyan Parliament Aguila Saleh Issa and LNA’s Khalifa Haftar in a bid to avert a likely civil war.