Tripoli: Islamist fighters in the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition said on Saturday they have captured Tripoli airport after 10 days of clashes with nationalist militiamen.
A statement shown on screen on An Nabaa television, regarded as close to the Islamists, said: “Fajr Libya announces that it totally controls Tripoli international airport.”
The strategic site 30km south of the Libyan capital, has been shut since July 13 amid skirmishes between the Islamists and nationalist fighters from Zintan west of Tripoli, who had held the airport since the 2011 fall of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Earlier on Saturday, leaders of the Islamist coalition, partly comprising fighters from Misrata, east of Tripoli, said their forces were advancing on the airport, having taken a bridge and a military base.
If independent sources confirm that the airport has changed hands, it would be a major setback for the Zintan militia allied to rogue general Khalifa Haftar, based at Benghazi in eastern Libya and hostile to the Islamists, against whom he has launched an operation dubbed Karama (Dignity).
The Islamist coalition, which repeatedly claims successes against the nationalists, on Thursday organised a visit by Libyan journalists to an army base on the way to the airport, to prove they had taken it.
Fajr Libya spokesman Mohammad Al Gariani said on Saturday that an overnight air raid that killed at least 10 Islamists near the airport was aimed at easing the pressure on the Zintan militia, defending the airport.
However, Gariani said he could not identify the warplane that carried out the raid, just as two aircraft which bombarded Islamist positions on Monday night remain unidentified.
Haftar claimed to be behind Monday’s raid, but specialists doubted his forces’ ability to carry out such an attack.
