On April 4, the Libyan National Army, led by Marshal Khalifa Hafter, launched an attack on the country's capital, Tripoli. This was the culmination of several years of military action. A few days later, when the Haftar planes carried out raids on Maitika, the last airport in the Libyan capital, UN envoy Ghassan Salama warned of a "serious violation of humanitarian law."

Hafar's forces briefly seized Tripoli International Airport, about 15 miles south of the city. Although the airport has been closed to civil aviation since 2014, when it was damaged by fighting between rival militias, Hafar's forces wanted to use it as a springboard for further progress in Tripoli, but it did not get the chance. Militias loyal to the Libyan National Reconciliation Government The establishment is recognized internationally only two days later.

This is not the first time that Libya's airports have become the center of civil war in the country. Since the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's rule in 2011, airports and other vital infrastructure, including oil stations, arms depots, military barracks, bridges and major roads, have become vital strategic assets. For many militias, which compete for vast natural resources Libya, and ultimately control the country.

In the early years after Qadhafi, the traveler at Tripoli airport is greeted by Toyota pickup trucks carrying anti-aircraft guns. The militiamen who run the airport wear the slogans of the state to legitimize, but no one doubts who really controlled it.

In July 2014, fighting broke out in Tripoli between Zintan militias and Misurata battalions. The value of the airport quickly became apparent and the Zintanyans set it on fire instead of allowing the airport to fall into the hands of rival militias. However, the Misrata militias controlled the remnants of the airport by August 2014, forcing the Zintan militias to withdraw.

The smaller airport, Maitika International Airport, five miles east of Tripoli, has become the actual airport of the capital, although foreign carriers have never used it. On the eve of the recent fighting, the facility was serving three Libyan airlines, only about 10 daily flights, mostly to Tunisia or Turkey, along with other destinations in the Middle East and Africa.

Throughout the history of Libya, which spans almost a century, it controls the Maitika airport dominating the country. In the early 1920s, Italy built the airport. During the Second World War, Maitika became a German air base, seized by the British in 1943, and then transferred to the US Army. The Americans renamed it Willos Air Force Base, and for 25 years, members of the US Army and their families lived and worked there. Over time, the US military presence became a symbol of the West's exploitation of Libya's oil resources.

When a Libyan army officer, Muammar Gaddafi, launched a coup against the ruling monarchy in 1969, his first act was to expel the Americans from Willus. Gaddafi renamed the facility to become the Uqba Airbase, and for some time Libyan and Soviet air forces operated from there. In 1995, the airport became the second civilian airport in Tripoli, and was given its current name «Muaitika».

During the 2011 revolution, the airport fell into the grip of militant militias led by a young leader named Abdul Raouf Qara. The commander and his fighters received political cover and salaries from the fragile transitional authorities in Libya. The payments were part of a larger attempt to empower the militias as post-Qadhafi security providers in Tripoli, and the Kara militias were tasked with combating drug trafficking and terrorism. Qara Airport used his base in this task much further, his militia began in retaliatory killings after 2011, chasing Gaddafi security officials, and others associated with the former regime. In 2018, the Libyan army recognized by the United Nations, which controls Tripoli and areas in western and southern Libya, captured the Kara and other militias and returned them as a special deterrent, a key part of the national security apparatus. Although the force operates nominally under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, it retains its own command structures and operates with a high level of autonomy, as one of four powerful militias competing for control in Tripoli.

The war on Libyan airports shows where the country is heading. As long as rival armed groups are able to use airports to secure weapons and assistance from foreign donors, Libyan militias will be able to destabilize fragile state institutions. Libya's airports, along with its other borders, will remain centers of trafficking, extortion, extrajudicial detentions and other practices that undermine the capacity of the state and human rights.

- Hafar forces wanted to use the airport

Matte base starting for more

Progress in Tripoli.