New arms shipments come for Haftar forces: Libyan army

TRIPOLI

The Libyan army on Sunday said Russian-made cargo planes made new military shipments to the forces loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Gen. Abdulhadi Dirah, the spokesman for the army’s Sirte-Jufra Joint Operations Unit, said that carrying military ammunition, Ilyushin-type planes conducted five flights to Sirte and Jufra provinces on Saturday.

Carrying Bashar al-Assad regime’s soldiers, two more flights were made from Syria to Benghazi, the second biggest Libyan city, which is the center of the Haftar’s forces, Dirah said.

Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The government was founded in 2015 under a UN-led agreement, but efforts for a long-term political settlement failed due to a military offensive by forces loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar.

The UN recognizes the government headed by al-Sarraj as the country's legitimate authority, as it has battled warlord Khalifa Haftar's militias -- with the support of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, the UAE and France -- since April 2019 in a conflict that has taken more than 1,000 lives.