Haftar militia seizes control of Sirte from UN-backed government

Libyan militia loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar take control of strategic coastal city of Sirte

Ahmad al Mesmari, the spokesman for Haftar's forces, addresses the media in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on January 6, 2020

He said Haftar loyalists struck from five land and sea positions and had air cover. He did not give further details. Tensions escalated last year when Haftar launched an operation in January to "purge" southern Libya "of terrorist groups and criminals" and seized several towns with support from some local tribes.

On Sunday, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkish soldiers had begun deploying in Libya.Although there has been no immediate confirmation from Tripoli of that deployment, Turkey's involvement has raised concern among Libya's neighbours and in Europe. The European Union, for its part, expressed concern over an "imminent" escalation of violence around Tripoli.

Sirte was at one stage a bastion of the Daesh which moved into Libya amid the chaos that followed Gaddafi's ouster.

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