Thousands flee as fighters battle on the outskirts of Tripoli’
Libyan National Army forces of commander Khalifa Haftar have taken up positions in the suburbs about 11km from Tripoli's centre
Tripoli — Eastern forces and troops loyal to the government in Tripoli fought on the outskirts of Libya’s capital on Wednesday as the battle forced thousands of residents to flee their homes. The Libyan National Army (LNA) forces of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar had taken up positions in the suburbs about 11km south of the centre, with steel containers and pickups with mounted machine-guns blocking their way into the city. Residents reported LNA planes buzzing Tripoli and the sound of clashes in outskirts of the city. Haftar's forces briefly took the former international airport earlier in the week, but Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj's fighters won that back and the LNA was entrenched further south, witnesses said. The UN said that at least 4,500 Tripoli residents had been displaced, most moving away from conflict areas to safer districts of the city. But many more were trapped, it said. The LNA forces moved out of their stronghold in east Libya to take the sparsely-populated bu...
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