Nasser Shedid - Tripoli
Al-Jazeera Net has monitored the course of the recent battles in Libya, where field commanders in the forces of the National Accord government talked about the factors that enabled them to expel the fighters of retired Major General Khalifa Hifter outside the borders of Tripoli, a year and two months after Hifter launched his attack on the capital.
In a televised statement Thursday, Colonel Muhammad al-Qanunu, a spokesman for the Al-Wefaq government, announced that Al-Wefaq forces had taken control of the entire city of Tripoli.
Al-Wefaq forces pursued Haftar's fighters to Tarhuna, southeast of the capital, before it announced today, Friday, the entry of the city and extended control of it. Tarhuna was the last stronghold of Haftar forces in the Libyan West.
Systems and mercenaries
The field commander of the Al-Wefaq government forces, Salim Qashut, told Al-Jazeera Net that the destruction of nine Russian air defense systems of the Panzer type within 72 hours, and the withdrawal of the Russian mercenaries of Wagner, helped the reconciliation forces "defeat the forces of Haftar and liberate the whole of Tripoli with Turkish support."
He continued, "Our numbers are large and the fire density was fired at the enemy from everywhere," referring to the weakness of Haftar's forces to cut off their supply routes from south of Tripoli, after intensifying the use of drones.
Haftar's forces have received successive strikes over the past weeks, as they lost the cities of the West Coast and the strategic "Al-Wattia" base before Al-Wefaq forces expelled them from their last locations in the capital and from the entire city of Tarhuna.
Turkey's support for the internationally-recognized Al-Wefaq government has changed the balance of power on the ground in the face of Haftar's forces backed by Egypt, the Emirates, France and Russia, which launched a faltering offensive since April 2019 to control the capital.
Turkish drones, in particular, had a prominent role in destroying the Russian air defense systems used by Haftar's forces.
The airport battle The Tripoli airport battle came yesterday, Wednesday, to mark the expulsion of Haftar fighters from its last location in the capital.
Al-Wefaq forces attacked the airport - where the retired brigade fighters had been barricaded for more than a year - from several axes, with extensive support from the Hauser artillery and drones, and engaged Haftar forces on several fronts bordering the airport, in order to divert their attention.
The commander of the Al-Wefaq forces, Salim Qashout, said that they attacked the airport with 300 to 400 military vehicles reinforced with tanks, while Haftar forces had only about 25 military vehicles.
Other military sources said that regaining control of the airport precipitated the collapse of Haftar's fighters in Qasr bin Ghashir and Wadi Al-Rabi`, its last two areas within the capital's borders, in addition to areas outside the administrative borders of Tripoli.
With these successive developments, the forces of the retired brigade have lost all their areas in the Libyan West, 14 months after launching their campaign to storm Tripoli.
Al-Wefaq government forces are directing their eyes to Sirte, Al-Jafra Air Force Base, and oil fields controlled by Haftar forces in southern Libya, but observers say that things are heading to negotiation between the parties to the conflict.