Thu 11 June 2020:
The Libyan army on Thursday said it gained control of a main supply line used by warlord Khalifa Haftar’s militias, days after it regained full control over the capital Tripoli from the forces loyal to the eastern-based renegade commander.
An army statement said it now controlled the 350-km-long supply line that connects south and west of Libya, and was used by Haftar’s militias for over a year.
Separately, it said Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj met military commanders in Tripoli, and in the country’s north and center.
He reviewed military operations against Haftar, who is backed by the United Arab Emirates, along with efforts to ensure the safety of the people, and public facilities in recaptured areas.
The government launched Operation Peace Storm in March to counter attacks on the capital, and recently repelled the 14-month assault. It also regained strategic locations, including Al-Watiya airbase and the city of Tarhuna.
Following the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya’s new government was founded in 2015 under a political deal led by the UN.
Multiple mass graves
Meanwhile, multiple mass graves have been discovered in Tarhuna and other areas recently retaken from Haftar’s forces.
The Libyan National Commission for the Identification of Missing Persons announced the discovery of 15 bodies out of a hundred reported in Tarhuna, 65km (40 miles) south of Tripoli.
The GNA said the graves contain the remains of imprisoned government soldiers.
The exact number of bodies has not been made public but officials said the bodies are badly decomposed and cannot be identified.
“So far, two bodies have been exhumed. The region is full of corpses,” Lutfi Tevfik Misrati, head of an office investigating disappeared people in the country, told Anadolu news agency.
“We think that there are 10 to 12 bodies in another grave in the field. Graves were found at five or more different points,” Misrati said.
-AA, Al Jazeera
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