CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st December, 2019) Ahmed Mismari, a spokesman for the Libyan National Army (LNA), told Sputnik on Friday that LNA had killed thousands of fighters loyal to the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) during the recent assault on Tripoli.
Earlier in December, troops led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar began what he described as the last battle for the Libyan capital. Tripoli has already witnessed a similar offensive in April resulting in heavy casualties.
"This phase was successful, thousands of terrorists and members of armed groups were killed," Mismari said.
According to the LNA spokesman, one of the main successes of the LNA in the recent Tripoli offensive is that they managed to force the armed groups out of the city.
Libya has been going through a severe political crisis since a coup in 2011 that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi. The two rival administrations have practically turned the oil-rich country into duopoly, with the LNA controlling the east and the GNA controlling the west, while the south has been recently attracting runaway terrorists from Syria and Iraq.
