Libya’s Haftar to Press Tripoli Offensive as U.S. Urges a Halt
- U.S. warned that Russian involvement will drag out conflict
- LNA denies hundreds of Russian mercenaries have been deployed
Libyans check the site of an air strike on the southern outskirts of the capital Tripoli on Oct. 14.
Photographer: Mahmud Turkia/AFP via Getty Images
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Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar will press a seven-month offensive to seize Tripoli after his forces ended a battlefield stalemate, his spokesman said, despite U.S. pressure to halt a war that’s drawn in Russian intervention.
General Ahmed al-Mismari said Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army has been gaining ground in heavy fighting on the capital’s outskirts, where they’d been largely bogged down since launching the offensive in April to unseat the internationally recognized government.