Mercenary fighters on both sides played a crucial role in the most recent offensive. The LNA media office shared footage of reinforcements arriving in Tripoli, including ground troops and armored vehicles, and of clashes in the southern areas. It said Hifter's forces took control of al-Tawghaar town, just south of the city. The fighting has threatened to plunge Libya into another bout of violence rivaling the scale of the 2011 conflict that ousted and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. In the chaos that followed, the country was divided, with a weak U.N.-supported administration in Tripoli and a rival government in the east aligned with the LNA.

Source: International New York Times December 14, 2019 15:06 UTC