Fresh fighting near Libya main airport despite truce

[Sally]

I guess many times in the Arab world, a truce means nothing.

Fresh fighting near Libya main airport despite truce

By Imed Lamloum
11 hours ago

..Tripoli (AFP) - Fighting between powerful militias battling for control of Tripoli's airport broke out again on Friday, just hours after they had agreed a truce, an airport official and witnesses said.

The clashes came as the government sought United Nations help to prevent the country from becoming a "failed state".

"The airport was once again today hit by mortar fire which struck the security offices," but caused no casualties, airport security official Al-Jilani Al-Dahech told AFP.

Airport security forces returned fire, he said without giving further details.

http://news.yahoo.com/islamists-win-support-battle-tripoli-airport-210215822.htm

 

[waltky]

Qatar sending mixed messages...

US Furious After Source Of "Mystery" Libya Bombing Raids Revealed
8/25/2014 - Over the past week a new geopolitical mystery emerged: an "unknown" party was launching airstrikes against Libya, which is already reeling in its latest political crisis where headlines such as this have become the norm:

MILITIA MEN SET HOUSE OF LIBYAN PM THENI ABLAZE: ARABIYA
LIBYA'S NEIGHBOURS AGREE NOT TO INTERVENE IN LIBYAN AFFAIRS, CALL FOR NATIONAL DIALOGUE
The strikes puzzled all media outlets, including Reuters which just over the weekend reported that "Unidentified war planes attacked positions of an armed faction in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Saturday, residents and local media said. Local channel al-Nabaa said the planes had attacked four positions of the Operation Dawn, an umbrella of Islamist-leaning forces from Misrata which has been trying to expel brigades from Zintan, also located in western Libya." This follows a similar report when on Monday, the government said unknown fighter jets had bombed positions from armed factions in Tripoli, an attack claimed by a renegade general in Benghazi.

Turns out the renegade general was lying, and merely trying to take credit for another party's intervention. That party, or rather, parties has been revealed as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which as the NYT reports, "have secretly teamed up to launch airstrikes against Islamist-allied militias battling for control of Tripoli, Libya, four senior American officials said, in a major escalation between the supporters and opponents of political Islam."
But what is surprising is not the intervention: after all, hardly a day passes now when there isn't some small to medium political invasion taking place somewhere, in a world in which newsflow no longer affects anything. It is that both countries decided to roundly ignore advising the one country which previously had made it quite clear it has explicit national interests in Libya: the United States.

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See also:

Qatar seeks to free more U.S. hostages in Syria: source
Tue Aug 26, 2014 - Qatar is working to help free four Americans held hostage in Syria by various armed groups, a Gulf source familiar with the matter said on Monday, a day after the Gulf Arab state's diplomacy helped free a journalist held since 2012.

The source declined to name the four or provide details, and Reuters could not independently verify the assertion, but his account was broadly supported by other sources. The reported initiative by Qatar coincides with an effort by the tiny state to rebut accusations by some of its Arab neighbors and Western politicians that it supports the most anti-Western militant armed groups in Iraq and Syria. Those allegations followed months of criticism by human rights groups over its treatment of Asian guest workers and charges – denied by Doha – of corruption in its successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

The wealthy country, which does back some rebel factions fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has mediated the release of foreign and Syrian captives on several occasions in the course of Syria's three-year-old civil war. Its latest foray into hostage diplomacy brought Sunday's release of Peter Theo Curtis, an American held for nearly two years by al-Nusra Front, an affiliate of al Qaeda. "Four other Americans who have gone missing in Syria have now been located, and Qatar is working to free them," the Gulf source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. He said the hostages were being held by "various groups" but declined to give details. Qatar's foreign ministry declined to comment.

A Doha-based source close to the Qatari government said without elaborating that Washington was working with Qatar to try to free a number of U.S. hostages in Syria. A rebel commander in Syria reached by Skype from Beirut told Reuters that Qatar was continuously trying to secure the release of captives of all nationalities.

BEHEADING

 

[waltky]

Qatar behind air attacks...

As Libyan Chaos Deepens, US and Europeans Condemn Airstrikes Against Islamists
August 25, 2014 – The U.S. joined four European partners on Monday condemning the escalation of violence in Libya, where Islamists seized control of Tripoli’s airport at the weekend, but also criticized airstrikes against those same Islamists, although without identifying the source of the air attacks.

While forces led by a renegade Libyan general fighting the Islamists, Khalifa Hifter, claimed responsibility for the airstrikes, U.S. officials pointed a finger at Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). U.S. officials told the New York Times that the Obama administration had been surprised by the strikes by Egypt and the UAE, which had not coordinated their action with Washington. Egypt in particular has expressed deep concern about its neighbor’s collapse into near-anarchy, but the foreign ministry in Cairo denied involvement in the airstrikes; there was no comment from the UAE government.

The airstrikes by unidentified warplanes targeted Islamist positions in Tripoli shortly before the airport was captured, and reportedly again afterwards, evidently failing to prevent the Islamist advance. Although the statement by the five Western governments did not identify those responsible for the airstrikes, it did refer to “outside interference.” “The governments of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States strongly condemn the escalation of fighting and violence in and around Tripoli, Benghazi, and across Libya, especially against residential areas, public facilities, and critical infrastructure, by both land attacks and air strikes,” the joint statement read.

It called on Libyan parties and politicians to “accept an immediate ceasefire and engage constructively in the democratic process, abstaining from confrontational initiatives that risk undermining it.” “We believe outside interference in Libya exacerbates current divisions and undermines Libya’s democratic transition.” At a press briefing Monday State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki recited that last line about outside interference, but also said that she was “not in a position to provide any additional information on these [air]strikes.” “Libya’s challenges are political and violence will not resolve them,” Psaki said.

Pressed on the issue, she would say only that the U.S. has “close working relationships” with Egypt and the UAE. Asked later in the briefing whether there would be any difference between the UAE bombing Islamist militants in Libya and the U.S. doing the same to Taliban forces in Afghanistan, Psaki said, “Every circumstance is different.”

Russia: NATO to blame