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Charred vehicles in Tripoli, following exchanges of rocket and artillery fire in the capital. Photograph: Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images

The worst fighting of Libyas three-year civil war has erupted, with battles raging for control of Tripoli and key oil ports, raising the temperature on US claims of increasing Russian influence in the country.

In eastern Libya, the army of the national parliament, led by strongman Khalifa Haftar, has recaptured two oil ports, Sidra and Ras Lanuf, from Islamist militias that seized them this month.

Meanwhile Tripoli is shuddering under three days of violence between rival militias battling with tanks and artillery. The fighting has intensified a diplomatic spat between Moscow and Washington over claims by unnamed US and Egyptian officials that Russia has deployed special forces and drones to an airbase in western Egypt near the border with Libya.

Russia and Egypt have denied the claims, but US senator Lindsey Graham called last week for Moscows growing Libya footprint to be put on the radar screen of Donald Trumps secretary of state, Rex Tillerson.

While Russia recognises Libyas elected parliament in the eastern town of Tobruk, the US and most western powers back a rival, unelected government of national accord (GNA) in Tripoli which they hope can unify the country.

In January Moscow invited Haftar for a full dress parade aboard its aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, as it returned from Syria, while Russias state-owned oil giant Rosneft has announced plans for major new investments in Libya.

Visiting Moscow this week seeking military aid, the parliaments president, Agila Saleh, told the RIA Novosti news agency: We asked the Russian government to help us with training the soldiers in our armed forces and the repair of military equipment.

Analysts say Russias growing involvement in Libya has come as the US is distracted by crises elsewhere in the world. As in Syria, Russias interest [in Libya] is opportunistic, said Geoff Porter, the director of US-based North Africa Risk Consulting. Moscow saw an opening that was afforded to it by Washingtons lack of leadership.

No reliable casualty figures have yet been reported from the violence of recent days in Tripoli, with militias battling each other in western and central districts. Flights were suspended from the city centre airport as stray rockets hit buildings across the city.

There are explosions everywhere you can never know when clashes will take place, one resident, who asked not be be named, emailed from the city. Im scared of going out and getting stuck in crossfire.

The UN envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler, tweeted:

Western powers are struggling to shore up support for the GNA, which was created by a UN-chaired commission and is intended to share power between parliament and groups including a militia coalition, Libya Dawn, that controls Tripoli.

But parliament is divided and has yet to accept the GNA, while it operates its own government in the east complete with a separate currency.

Tobruks position has been strengthened because the capture of the oil ports gives it control of the Sirte basin, home to the bulk of Libyas oil wealth.

Nor has the GNA succeeded in wooing Libya Dawn, whose militias are continuing to battle in Tripoli, some for the GNA, others for yet another would-be administration, the Salvation Government. Wednesdays fighting saw pro-GNA militias storm the Salvation Government compound at the luxury Rixos hotel.

Last month the UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, called for Haftar to be included in the GNA, but some diplomats fear that if that happened, Libya Dawn would reject it, leaving the country still locked in war-torn stalemate.

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Libya national army recaptures oil ports at Sidra and Ras Lanuf - The Guardian

Forces loyal to Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) man a checkpoint in the Hay al-Andalus neighbourhood of Tripoli on March 14, 2017, following clashes between rival armed groups. Photo: Mahmud Turkia AFP

TRIPOLI Artillery exchanges rocked the Libyan capital for a third day on Wednesday after forces loyal to the UN-backed government stormed the headquarters of a rival militia overnight, witnesses said.

Libya has experienced years of violence and lawlessness since the Nato-backed ouster of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with rival parliaments and governments trading barbs and militias fighting over territory and the country's vast oil wealth.

Militia loyal to former prime minister Khalifa Ghweil, whose administration was replaced by the UN-backed government last year, have stepped up a campaign of defiance against its authority.

The militia, mainly drawn from Ghweil's hometown, third city Misrata, were putting up fierce resistance in their base in the Guest Palace, a complex of luxury villas in the city centre.

A rocket hit the Al-Khadhra Hospital without causing any casualties, a medic said.

READ: Libya strongman seizes oil terminals: spokesman

Overnight, gunmen stormed the headquarters of Al-Nabaa television, a privately owned channel known for its Islamist leanings, witnesses said.

The channel remained off the air on Wednesday.

The fighting brought life in the capital to a standstill with schools and shops closed.

It came despite an appeal from UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler on Tuesday for an "immediate ceasefire".

"Civilians at grave risk in ongoing clashes," Kobler said on Twitter.

READ: Libya in ruins four years after Gaddafi's death

The clashes erupted in the neighbourhoods of Hay al-Andalus and Gargaresh on Monday evening, prompting the government to deploy tanks.

They came as heavy fighting rocked the east of Libya where forces loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar announced their recapture of two key oil ports on Tuesday.

Haftar's forces, which do not recognise the UN-backed government, mounted a day-long assault by land, sea and air to retake the ports of Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra, after they were seized by a rival, Islamist-led force earlier this month.

AFP

05 March 2017

Three strikes hit vehicles and targets in the area around the al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf terminals, where at least nine soldiers were killed.

04 March 2017

The Tripoli government denied any involvement in the latest offensive, condemning it as a 'military escalation'.

06 February 2017

Fighting in the neighbourhood first broke out last Thursday when a man from Wershefana, said to be supportive of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi, was caught stealing a car.

Excerpt from:
Third day of clashes in Libya - eNCA

US aerial reconnaissance assets have recently noticed both Russian transport aircraft and a large Russian drone at an airbase in far western Egypt close to the Libyan border, CNN has learned.

It is not clear if the Russian equipment and personnel are military or contractors, but US officials believe it's all part of the growing signs that Russia is interfering in Libya, according to this official and another US official.

There was some open discussion of this at the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, when the four-star head of Africa Command acknowledged the US believes Russia is trying to manipulate the political outcome in Libya.

General Thomas D. Waldhauser testified: "Russia is trying to exert influence on the ultimate decision of who becomes and what entity becomes in charge of the government inside Libya. They're working to influence that -- that the decision."

Sen. Lindsey Graham then asked about the Russians: "They're trying to do in Libya what they've been doing in Syria?"

Waldhauser answered: "Yes, that's a good way to characterize it."

CNN spoke to officials in Egypt about an earlier Reuters report alleging the placement of drones and special forces in Egypt near the Libyan border.

An Egyptian military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told CNN this issue is a matter of sovereignty, going on to say that Egypt's military has hosted several rounds of talks for Libyan officials and members of parliament over the past two months to ease the political deadlock.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, responded to CNN questioning about drones, saying "we don't have that information." On special forces in Egypt near the Libya border he added, "we also have no information about that."

Five years after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi, three governments vie for power in Libya, multiple tribes compete for influence and a slice of the country's dwindling oil wealth; while ISIS has gained a foothold in some areas.

Keen to promote stability, the United Nations hastened in a Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) early last year.

It continues to compete with the Islamist-dominated General National Congress in Tripoli, also known as the Government of National Salvation, and with the previous internationally recognized government, the Council of Deputies, which has set up camp in the east of Libya and backs Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the head of the so-called Libyan army.

CNN's Barbara Starr reported from Washington, Emma Burrows reported from Moscow and Sarah Sirgany reported from Cairo. Angela Dewan and Laura Smith-Spark also contributed to this report.

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US officials warn Russia could be interfering in Libya - WTAE Pittsburgh

When he saw boats in the distance, Issa knew he was going to live. It was July 2014 and he had spent hours in the sea, clinging to a plastic petrol container while women, men and children drowned around him. The small rubber boat that was supposed to take them all to Italy had sunk just two hours after leaving the Libyan coast. Of the 137 people Issa says were on board, only 49 survived.

Issa, from Burkina Faso, was not rescued by any passing ship but was picked up by the Libyan coastguard. Rather than being taken to a safe port in Italy as he had hoped, he was returned to Libya where he was handed over to the police. He says he was locked up for months in appalling conditions and beaten regularly by policemen who demanded money in exchange for his release.

My hands were tied behind my back, he said. I was laying on the floor facing down, and they were beating me on the back with a belt and electric cables.

Only after Issas family scraped together 625 OOO CFA (about 900), was he finally released.

In September last year, he tried to reach Italy again but after three days at sea, the boat he was on landed back on Libyan shores. We were arrested upon arrival and taken to a prison in Tripoli, and two weeks later we were transferred to the city of Sabha. We learnt that we had been sold to traffickers. After a month in captivity, he and others managed to escape. Our abductors shot some people. I dont know whether any of them died, he said.

This is just one of the stories of people we interviewed during a recent visit to Agadez, a city in central Niger which has become a busy transit point for refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa trying to get to Europe via Libya as well as for those returning after suffering horrific abuse there.

They echo heart-wrenching stories I heard from the hundreds of refugees and migrants I met in reception centres in Italy. Many of them had been detained for months in Libya where they said they had been tortured, beaten, raped, humiliated. The word that stuck in my mind, used by so many of them to describe their experiences, is hell.

European governments are investing tens of millions in anti-migration measures in Niger, including by supporting Nigerien police operations to stop the flow of pick-up trucks that speed towards the Libyan border. They claim that these measures are necessary to protect those travelling. As one diplomat in Niger told me: We are worried for the people, they are enslaved in Libya. We need to stop this. We cant accept that people lose their lives and are abused in this way.

If EU leaders really cared about the abuses refugees and migrants face in Libya, they would offer them safe and legal routes to Europe.

But if the safety of these people was really their chief concern, why are these same governments sparing no effort in pushing the Libyan authorities to stop people attempting to come to Europe? Indeed, in recent months, European institutions and governments have been stepping up their cooperation with the Libyan coastguard to help it intercept people and take them back to Libya, turning a blind eye to the horrific abuses they will face there. In the past few weeks alone, Italy has signed a new agreement on migration control with Libya and European leaders have repeatedly declared their intention to increase collaboration including at the European Council last week.

Current actions to reinforce the Libyan coastguard through the provision of training and boats might save lives at sea. But without meaningful efforts to stop the automatic detention of refugees and migrants intercepted at sea by the coastguard and their systematic ill-treatment in Libya, and to provide access to protection for those seeking asylum, such measures are a double-edged sword.

With every agreement announced, European leaders send a clear signal that they are not really concerned about protecting desperate women, men and children by keeping them out of Libya. By donating boats to a coastguard accused of colluding with smugglers and beating those intercepted at sea and by supporting centres where people are arbitrarily detained and tortured, their true intention is revealed. Indeed, stopping people arriving irregularly in Europe is now so high on their agenda that any price is seemingly worth paying. The horrific consequences to this blinkered attitude are - as Issa knows all too well - very real.

Libya is in the depths of a humanitarian crisis, with much of the country under the de facto control of armed groups and criminal gangs. With a weak judiciary, lawlessness has become the norm, and civilians are at grave risk of human rights abuses. In this context, refugees and migrants face the risk of arbitrary detention, abduction, ill-treatment, sexual violence and exploitation. Although detention centres where refugees and migrants are kept are nominally managed by the Libyan government, they are in fact mostly run by armed groups. These groups use pressure and intimidation to get officials to grant them free reign in smuggling and trafficking networks.

If EU leaders really cared about the abuses refugees and migrants face in Libya, they would offer them safe and legal routes to Europe, in particular by making humanitarian admission to Europe available to the thousands of people in need of protection. Crucially, cooperation with Libyan authorities would focus on supporting measures to protect the human rights of refugees and migrants in the country starting with an end to their arbitrary detention and ill-treatment.

Women, men and children are being jailed, exploited, tortured and raped after their rescue. That decisions being taken by the European governments are resulting, directly or indirectly, in fueling these abuses, should horrify us all.

Matteo de Bellis is Amnesty Internationals migration researcher

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The human cost of European hypocrisy on Libya - Amnesty International

A new report last weekend has revealed that a force of several dozen armed private security contractors from Russia had operated in a part of Libya controlled by regional strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Coming just days after the Pentagons top Africa official warned the Senate that Moscow was trying to do a Syria in the North African nation, the report of Russian mercenaries in the war-torn country once again raises questions about the government of Vladimir Putins intentions in Libya and its United Nations-backed government, which Western countries see as the best chance of restoring stability to war-torn Libya.

Russia is trying to exert influence on the ultimate decision of who and what entity becomes in charge of the government inside Libya, General Thomas D. Waldhauser, the chief of the Pentagons Africa command, said in a testimony to the Senates foreign relations committee last week.

Russia has already irked numerous Western governments with its support of the brutal regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and, despite assurances from Oleg Krinitsyn - owner of private Russian firm RSB-group that the mercenaries were sent to Libya as a commercial arrangement, it is unlikely that the Kremlin did not grant Krinitsyn its approval, according to Reuters.

Krinitsyn told Reuters that his firm did not work with the Russian defense ministry, but was "consulting" with the Russian foreign ministry.

RSB-group sent the contractors to eastern Libya last year and they were pulled out in February having completed their mission. The task of the security contractors was to remove mines from an industrial facility near the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, in an area that Haftar's forces had liberated from Islamist rebels.

Krinitsyn did not say who hired his firm, where they were operating or what the industrial facility was. He did not say if the operation had been approved by the U.N.-backed government, which most states view as the sovereign ruler of Libya.

Earlier this month Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks in Moscow with Fayez Seraj, the head of the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, where he reaffirmed the Russian Federations support of working toward a united government in the oil-rich nation.

"Moscow confirmed its readiness to work closely with all sides in Libya with the aim of seeking mutually acceptable solutions to create the grounds for the stable development of Libya as a united, sovereign and independent state," the ministry said in a statement.

Despite the Lavrovs promises, actions by the Kremlin indicate that it is strongly in favor of Haftar taking control of the country and not just the eastern section currently under his control. In February Reuters reported that around 70 soldiers fighting for Haftar have been sent to Russia for treatment and Haftar has publically met with Russian officials at least three times twice in Moscow and once aboard a Russian aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean where he spoke with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Over the weekend, Haftars forces launched a series of airstrikes against the western Libyan city of Sidra, the countrys biggest oil port which has recently been the scene of intense between Haftars troops and militias in the west.

In another worrying step, the eastern parliament last Tuesday voted to withdraw support from the United Nations peace deal that created the Tripoli government in January 2016 in hopes of ending years of chaos in the North African country. The withdrawal of support further undermines the government, which has had difficulty asserting authority even in Tripoli.

Hafter, an army general, former CIA asset and U.S. citizen who lived nearly 20 years in American exile, is the most powerful figure in the east, touting himself as the champion against Islamic militants in Libya though his enemies accuse him of aiming to become a new dictator like Moammar Gadhafi, who was overthrown and killed in the country's 2011 Arab Spring revolt. He has talked of marching to take Tripoli to unite the country, hinting that he aims to rule. He opposed the government set up by the U.N. peace deal because it would have pushed him out as head of the military.

The general is backed by Egypt and Russia, but Washington under the Obama administration kept him at arm's length. One key question in Haftars future will be whether the U.S. warms up to him under President Donald Trump.

Hafter's forces seized the oil facilities last year. The Obama administration had joined the U.N. in calling on him to hand them over to the Tripoli government.

But now that they have been wrested from him by force, he may resort instead to an all-out fight against Tripoli. His army says it is massing forces east of the terminals, awaiting orders. Their strength is unclear but they can call on reserves of thousands of eastern Libyan fighters and tribesman and are backed by Libyan and foreign air support. Hafter travels regularly to Cairo and insiders have said he flew there shortly after losing control of the terminals.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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US general warns of Kremlin interference in Libya amid reports of Russian mercenaries - Fox News