Forces loyal to Libya’s rebel General Khalifa Haftar have dispatched a warship to the oil port of Ras Lanuf for the first time and carried out airstrikes against the capital, Tripoli.
Haftar has been waging a deadly campaign since April 4 to seize Tripoli from troops aligned to Libya’s UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA).
The offensive has exacerbated chaos in Libya since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, threatening to plunge the country into a full-blown civil war.
Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) has almost two-thirds of the country and all oilfields under its control amid support from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.
He also enjoys support of some Western countries, including France and Italy, because they believe he holds the future keys to Libya’s oil spigots.
On Saturday, the LNA confirmed that it had sent a warship to the eastern Ras Lanuf oil port, after days of unconfirmed rumors of a foreign navy ship having been sighted.
LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari told reporters that his forces had sent the Alkarama patrol vessel to Libya’s key Oil Crescent region as part of a “training mission” to visit the operations room and to secure oil facilities.
