ISIS attacks Libyan Army camp as Tripoli government looks to bolster militia backing

Libyan fighters loyal to the Government of National Accord fire at forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, in Espiaa, about 40 kilometres south of Tripoli on April 29, 2019. AFP

ISIS militants have attacked a training camp for Libyan National Army forces in the country’s southwestern desert, killing nine soldiers.

Officials from the eastern Libyan force under Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar said that the ISIS militants had driven a vehicle into a training camp near the town of Sabha and were engaged by the facility’s guards.

The oasis town of Sabha, 650 kilometres south of the capital of Tripoli, was seized during an offensive by the LNA last year to clear what the force said were militant and terrorist groups.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, saying at least 16 soldiers were killed or wounded.

The fighting in southern Tripoli has killed at least 187 people and wounded over a thousand, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Tripoli said on Saturday.

The Tripoli government has transferred 1,157 people who have been wounded to Tunisia, Turkey, Italy and Ukraine for medical treatment, said Tarek Al Hamshiri, the head of the government forces' Field Medical Centre.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that at least 23 civilians have been killed since fighting started on April 5.

Most of the deaths so far have been fighters.

The UN humanitarian agency said on Friday that the month-long battle between the internationally recognised government in Tripoli and the LNA had left 55,000 displaced.

The international community has called a halt in the month-long fight in a bid to salvage a carefully built peace process between the Tripoli government and Field Marshall Haftar and his backers in the rival eastern government in Benghazi.

However, divisions between international players derailed a UN resolution on the matter. LNA officials say they have the backing of US President Donald Trump after a phone call with Field Marshal Haftar to discuss the fight against terrorists last month.

Before the fighting began, Field Marshal Haftar and Tripoli-based Government of National Accord Prime Minister Fayez Al Sarraj met in the UAE earlier this year and agreed on the need to work towards elections – a key part of the peace plan being built by UN envoy Ghassan Salameh. The two sides were also scheduled to attend talks in the town of Ghadames in April but the fighting derailed the plan.

The battle for Tripoli is the latest bout of violence since 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Qaddafi.

Since Qaddafi’s ouster, Libya has been governed by rival authorities in the east and in Tripoli, in the west, each backed by various militias and armed groups fighting over resources and territory.

Field Marshal Hifter, who in recent years has been battling Islamic extremists and other militias across eastern Libya, says he is determined to restore stability to the North African country.

The fighting has largely ground to a deadlock, but Mr Sarrajj – who relies on a patchwork of local militias and armed group for his military support having no formal army – is trying to attract and bolster the backing of some of the more powerful factions.

His administration released a statement on Saturday recognising 710 fighters killed in Libya's civil war in 2014 as "martyrs", in a move a source told Reuters was aimed at winning the backing of forces in nearby Zintan in the fight against Field Marshal Haftar.

"The GNA took this step in a bid to get support from the mountain town of Zintan to strengthen its forces in confronting the eastern forces deployed by military commander Khalifa Haftar," the government source said.