Al-Wattia Air Force Base, west of Libya, will it be the next target for the Al-Wefaq forces?

Mahmoud Rafidah - Tripoli

The Air Force of the National Accord Government continued to carry out intense raids on the positions of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar's forces at the "Al-Wataya Air Force Base", after the Al-Wefaq forces took control of six cities in western Libya.

The Al-Wattia air base - formerly known as the "Uqba bin Nafi" base - is located one hundred kilometers southwest of Tripoli, near the "Gemayel" and "Al-Asa" regions (western Libya).

The base is one of the largest air bases in Libya, as it includes weapons depots, a fuel station, an airstrip, a residential city, and warplanes, including Emirati drones used by Haftar forces to launch attacks on Tripoli.

The base is strategically located, as the warplanes and the path that flies from them cover the entire western regions of Libya, and can accommodate about seven thousand soldiers.

Al-Qaeda has a main operations room affiliated to Haftar, led by the Western Region Operations Commander Abdullah Nour Al-Din Al-Hammali, who is assigned to Haftar with the functions of Al-Qaeda, to succeed Major General Amer Al-Jumam, a captive of the Al-Wefaq government forces, after his plane was shot down in Al-Zawiyah (west of Tripoli) late last year.

The fleeing elements from the West Coast cities that the Al-Wefaq government forces recently entered, armed from eastern Libya and some mercenaries and foreigners are holed up in the strategic air base.

Among the battalions loyal to Haftar stationed at the base, members of the "Adiyat Brigade" belonging to the entrance stream, and his most prominent leaders are a Saudi intelligence man in western Libya, "Abu al-Khattab" Tariq Derman, who pleaded in a post on his Facebook page of the need to break the siege on a base The Wataya.

Emirates officers
Tunisian Member of Parliament, Maher Zaid, confirmed that the Al-Wattia base, which is adjacent to Tunisia, has become practically out of service after air strikes by the Al-Wefaq government aircraft, while they are waiting to be stormed by land by government forces.

In a post on his Facebook page, Zaid accused the UAE of communicating with a number of parties, including the Presidency of the Republic in Tunisia, to ensure a safe smuggling of the officers trapped at the Wataya base.

Zaid stressed that military experts from Egypt, the Emirates and France are present inside the Al-Watiyah base to direct the militants of Haftar who lack combat experience and ignorance of the field, as "a militia made up of mercenaries and foreigners."

Lifeline
Mustafa Al-Mujie, the spokesperson for the "Borkan Al-Fathi" operation, stated that Al-Wattia base has a strategic importance as a lifeline for the militia hotspots in the western region of Libya.

Al-Mujai added to Al-Jazeera Net that, "Removing Al-Wattia base from the military game means cutting its supplies almost completely from fuel, ammunition, weapons, warfare and marching."

Foreign officers from countries that recognize the Al-Wefaq government “outwardly” at al-Wattayah Air Force Base, which represents foreigners a safe haven unlike anywhere else in western Libya, without endangering their lives, are likely.

The spokesman pointed out that the control of Al-Wefaq forces on the Al-Wattia base granted it an important base for warfare away from Haftar missiles and artillery, unlike the Mutaika base in Tripoli, in addition to the possibility of harnessing the base in monitoring the Libyan sea and air borders.

Strategic base
The former pilot, Adel Abdul Kafi, considered that the importance of the Watiyah Air Force Base lies in its location in a geographical area in a rugged region that is difficult to enter by land except from some specific axes.

And Abdul Kafi told Al-Jazeera Net that "Al-Wattia base includes well-fortified ammunition and weapons stores as a strategic base during the previous regime, and is also being used as a base for the launching of UAE drones that launch attacks on civilians in Tripoli."

Abdel Kafi confirmed that Haftar has tried over the past months to maintain the base to exploit it against the capital, Tripoli, and to support and protect its militants and mercenaries in the six areas entered by Al-Wefaq government forces.

He pointed out that Hifter was seeking to use al-Qaeda as a staging post, gathering and rallying of his forces in order to control the Ras Jedir border crossing with Tunisia.

The former pilot believes that the incursion of the Al-Wefaq government forces into Al-Wattia base means the recent fall of Tarhuna, the main stronghold of Haftar in western Libya.

South of Tripoli
For his part, the officer in the Libyan army in the Al-Wefaq government, Adel Al-Zintani, believes that Al-Wattia base does not present a real threat at present, after the fall of six important cities on the western coast of Libya from Haftar's hand.

Al-Zintani added, "Now the military intelligence is to properly surround the Al-Wattayah base and work to bomb it continuously by the Air Force in the Al-Wefaq government, to neutralize it from work."

Al-Zintani told Al-Jazeera Net that entering the Al-Wattia base - which has a total area of ​​about one thousand square kilometers - needs a large force from the first to be used to attack Haftar's forces in the southern regions of Tripoli instead of draining a force from Al-Wefaq in the Al-Wattiyah battle.

Al-Zintani said that the Al-Wefaq government forces must end the battle in southern Tripoli to completely end the presence of Haftar's forces in the western region, and prepare the situation to weaken his forces in the city of Tarhuna.