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UN Condemns Haftar Forces for Blocking Flights at Tripoli Airport

VOA News

   The United Nations is sharply criticizing forces of Libyan strongman
   Khalifa Haftar for blocking flights from landing and taking off from
   Tripoli's only operational airport.

   A U.N. statement Wednesday said the organization was "very concerned
   that preventing flights from traveling in and out of Libya will
   severely hinder [its work to] provide the much-needed humanitarian
   assistance to the most vulnerable."

   Haftar's Libyan National Army declared a no-fly zone over in and around
   Tripoli in November and extended it last month to
   includeMitigaInternational Airport.

   The U.N.-backed government in Tripoli has defied the no-fly zone
   despite threats from Haftar's forces to shoot down any aircraft that
   violates it.

   A spokesman for the U.N.mission in Libya said thatfor the last three
   weeks, Haftar's army hadnot given it any guarantees that its planes
   would be able to fly securely.

   Fighting since 2014

   Haftar's eastern-based LNA and the Libyan government in Tripoli have
   been fighting for power since 2014. The fighting is concentrated in the
   Tripoli suburbswith neither side making muchprogress, butit has
   lefthundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the middle.

   Leaders fromseveralworld powers agreed at a Berlin summit last month to
   stop interfering in Libya,to prevent it from becoming what some
   diplomats call "another Syria."

   But a January cease-fire has been routinelybrokenand observers say arms
   continue to flow into the country.

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