Fresh gunbattles rock Libya capital after brief lull

Fresh gunbattles rock Libya capital after brief lull
Members of the 444 Brigade of the Libyan Army, a unit serving the Government of National Unity and Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, stand guard at Abu Salim area, in Tripoli, May 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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Fresh gunbattles rock Libya capital after brief lull

Fresh gunbattles rock Libya capital after brief lull
  • No official casualty figures were released, but the Libyan Red Crescent said it had recovered a dead body
  • The official described the fighting as “urban warfare“

TRIPOLI: Fresh gunbattles erupted on Wednesday in the Libyan capital between two powerful armed groups, a security official said, a day after authorities declared the fighting over.

Clashes flared between the Radaa force and the 444 Brigade in key areas of the city, including the port, the source said.

Fighting eased toward the end of the day, according to television reports and residents who spoke to AFP, with some bakeries opening but schools remaining shut.

No official casualty figures were released, but the Libyan Red Crescent said it had recovered a dead body from a major street in Tripoli.

On Monday night, heavy arms fire and explosions rocked several Tripoli districts, killing at least six people, according to authorities.

The official described the fighting as “urban warfare,” with clashes in residential areas involving light and medium weapons. In other areas, heavy weapons were used.

Libya has struggled to recover from the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi.

The country remains split between a UN-recognized government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east, controlled by the Haftar family.

The 444 Brigade controls parts of southern Tripoli and is aligned with Dbeibah. Radaa controls parts in the capital’s east and holds several key state facilities.

Fighting extended in southern and western Tripoli as Radaa brought in reinforcements to fight the 444 Brigade, an interior ministry source said.

More than 500 people on Wednesday rallied in the Souq el-Joumaa neighborhood, a Radaa stronghold, chanting slogans against the Dbeibah government and denouncing the proposed dissolution of the 444 Brigade.

Reports said Abdelghani Al-Kikli, leader of the Support and Stability Apparatus which controls the southern district of Abu Salim, was killed this week at a facility controlled by the 444 Brigade.

A source told AFP that groups were moving into the capital from neighboring Zawiya in support of Radaa, which detains smugglers of drugs and alcohol as well as affiliates of the Daesh group.

Meanwhile, “more Misrata brigades may continue to join Dbeibah’s side,” said Libya expert Jalel Harchaoui.

He described the latest conflict as some of the most dangerous for the capital in recent years, saying it meant a “territorial reshuffle” with more factions “seeking to insinuate themselves into downtown Tripoli.”

Turkiye, a supporter of the Tripoli-based government, called on “all parties to implement a full and lasting ceasefire without delay and to engage in dialogue to settle disputes,” its foreign ministry said.

On Tuesday, the Tripoli-based government said the fighting had been controlled. Dbeibah thanked government forces “for restoring security and asserting the state’s authority in the capital.”

Dbeibah also announced a string of executive orders including dissolving some bodies previously run by Tripoli armed groups other than the 444 Brigade.

But a second night of fighting could mean “a more prolonged, destructive, and existential battle with a nationwide dimension” after what he said was Dbeibah’s “failure to secure a quick victory.”

Authorities also announced a ceasefire, but gunshots were still heard in western parts of Tripoli.

The embassies in Germany, France the United States, Britain and Italy on Wednesday evening expressed “their deep concern about the recent violence in Tripoli,” urging the “authorities to take all measures to protect civilians” in a statement.

The United Nations mission in Libya said it was “deeply alarmed by escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods of Tripoli for the second night in a row.”

In a statement, it called for “an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in all areas, allowing safe corridors for the evacuation of civilians trapped in intense conflict zones.”


Trump lands in Abu Dhabi on last leg of Gulf tour

Trump lands in Abu Dhabi on last leg of Gulf tour
Updated 5 sec ago
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Trump lands in Abu Dhabi on last leg of Gulf tour

Trump lands in Abu Dhabi on last leg of Gulf tour

ABU DHABI: US President Donald Trump arrived Thursday in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates' capital, on the final stop of his multi-day Gulf tour, AFP journalists on Air Force One said.
After visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week, Trump is hoping to secure billions of dollars in business deals with the UAE that seeks to become an artificial intelligence hub.


Drones drag Sudan war into dangerous new territory

Drones drag Sudan war into dangerous new territory
Updated 6 min 40 sec ago
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Drones drag Sudan war into dangerous new territory

Drones drag Sudan war into dangerous new territory
  • RSF has sought to demonstrate its strength, discredit the army and disrupt its supply lines
  • Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair said “this is intended to undermine the army’s ability to provide safety and security in areas they control“

CAIRO: Paramilitary drone strikes targeting Sudan’s wartime capital have sought to shatter the regular army’s sense of security and open a dangerous new chapter in the war, experts say.

Since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group has been at war with the army, which has recently recaptured some territory and dislodged the paramilitaries from the capital Khartoum.

The latter appeared to have the upper hand before Sunday, when drone strikes began blasting key infrastructure in Port Sudan, seat of the army-backed government on the Red Sea coast.

With daily strikes on the city since then, the RSF has sought to demonstrate its strength, discredit the army, disrupt its supply lines and project an air of legitimacy, experts believe.

According to Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair, “this is intended to undermine the army’s ability to provide safety and security in areas they control,” allowing the RSF to expand the war “without physically being there.”

For two years, the paramilitaries relied mainly on lightning ground offensives, overwhelming army defenses in brutal campaigns of conquest.

But after losing nearly all of Khartoum in March, the RSF has increasingly turned to long-range air power.

RSF has hit strategic sites hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from their holdout positions on the capital’s outskirts.

Michael Jones, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, says the RSF’s pivot is a matter of both “strategic adaptation” and “if not desperation, then necessity.”

“The loss of Khartoum was both a strategic and symbolic setback,” he told AFP.

In response, the RSF needed to broadcast a “message that the war isn’t over,” according to Sudanese analyst Hamid Khalafallah.

The conflict between Sudan’s de facto leader, army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has split Africa’s third-largest country in two.

The army holds the center, north and east, while the RSF controls nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.

“It’s unlikely that the RSF can retake Khartoum or reach Port Sudan by land, but drones enable them to create a sense of fear and destabilize cities” formerly considered safe, Khalafallah told AFP.

With drones and loitering munitions, it can “reach areas it hasn’t previously infiltrated successfully,” Jones said.

According to a retired Sudanese general, the RSF has been known to use two types of drone — makeshift lightweight models with 120mm mortar rounds that explode on impact, and long-range drones capable of delivering guided missiles, including the Chinese-manufactured CH95.

According to Mohaned Elnour, nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, the RSF’s “main objective is to divert the army’s attention” and position itself as a potential government, which it has said it will form.

“It’s much easier for them to attack quickly and withdraw, rather than defend territory,” Elnour said.

Crossing Sudan’s vast landmass — some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from RSF bases in Darfur to Port Sudan — requires long-range drones such as the Chinese-made Wing Loong II, or the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 used by the army, according to Amnesty.

Both sides in Sudan are in a race to “destroy each other’s drone capacity,” Khair said.

Two years into the devastating war, the RSF has another incentive to rely on drones, she said.

“It allows them to spare their troops” after reports that RSF recruitment has dipped since the war began.

“Initial recruitment was high based on the opportunity to loot, and there’s very little left to loot now,” she said.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians, but the RSF is specifically accused of rampant looting, ethnic cleansing and systematic sexual violence.


Lufthansa group suspends Tel Aviv flights following Houthi attacks on Israel

Lufthansa group suspends Tel Aviv flights following Houthi attacks on Israel
Updated 15 May 2025
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Lufthansa group suspends Tel Aviv flights following Houthi attacks on Israel

Lufthansa group suspends Tel Aviv flights following Houthi attacks on Israel
  • Airline group Lufthansa will suspend its flights to Tel Aviv through May 25

BERLIN: Airline group Lufthansa will suspend its flights to Tel Aviv through May 25, it said on Thursday, citing the “current situation.”
This affects flights operated by Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings, ITA Airways, Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo, it added.
Global airlines have again halted their flights to and from Tel Aviv after a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis toward Israel on May 4 landed near the country’s main international airport in Tel Aviv.


Jordan evacuates second group of cancer patients from Gaza

Jordan evacuates second group of cancer patients from Gaza
Updated 15 May 2025
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Jordan evacuates second group of cancer patients from Gaza

Jordan evacuates second group of cancer patients from Gaza

AMMAN: Jordan’s government on Wednesday began evacuating four child cancer patients and 12 family members from Gaza.

They are the second group of patients evacuated for treatment under the Jordan Medical Corridor initiative, started in March this year, that aims to treat 2,000 Gazan children.

The children and their families were evacuated by the Royal Jordanian Air Force in cooperation with the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health.

They will be treated at the King Hussein Cancer Center.

The first evacuees were 29 children and 44 family members. Seventeen of these children have since returned to Gaza with their families after completing their treatment.


Trump says US close to a nuclear deal with Iran

Trump says US close to a nuclear deal with Iran
Updated 15 May 2025
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Trump says US close to a nuclear deal with Iran

Trump says US close to a nuclear deal with Iran
  • Trump says the US is in serious negotiations with Iran to reach a long-term peace

DUBAI: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States was getting very close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran, and Tehran had “sort of” agreed to the terms.

“We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump said on a tour of the Gulf, according to a shared pool report by AFP.

“We’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this... there (are) two steps to doing this, there is a very, very nice step and there is the violent step, but I don’t want to do it the second way,” he said.

An Iranian source familiar with the negotiations said there were still gaps to bridge in the talks with the United States.

Fresh talks between Iranian and US negotiators to resolve disputes over Tehran’s nuclear program ended in Oman on Sunday with further negotiations planned, officials said, as Tehran publicly insisted on continuing its uranium enrichment.

Though Tehran and Washington have both said they prefer diplomacy to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, they remain divided on several red lines that negotiators will have to circumvent to reach a new deal and avert future military action.

Iran’s president reacted to Trump’s comments on Tuesday calling Tehran the “most destructive force” in the Middle East.

“Trump thinks he can sanction and threaten us and then talk of human rights. All the crimes and regional instability is caused by them (the United States),” Masoud Pezeshkian said.

“He wants to create instability inside Iran.”

US officials have publicly stated that Iran should halt uranium enrichment, a stance Iranian officials have called a “red line” asserting they will not give up what they view as their right to enrich uranium on Iranian soil.

However, they have indicated a willingness to reduce the level of enrichment.

Iranian officials have also expressed readiness to reduce the amount of highly enriched uranium in storage— uranium enriched beyond the levels typically needed for civilian purposes, such as nuclear power generation.

However, they have said it would not accept lower stockpiles than the amount agreed in a deal with world powers in 2015 — the deal Trump quit.

The Iranian source said that while Iran is prepared to offer what it considers concessions, “the issue is that America is not willing to lift major sanctions in exchange.”

Western sanctions have severely impacted the Iranian economy.

Regarding the reduction of enriched uranium in storage, the source noted: “Tehran also wants it removed in several stages, which America doesn’t agree with either.”

There is also disagreement over the destination to which the highly enriched uranium would be sent, the source added.