Libya: GNA forces launch offensive, reject Haftar’s ceasefire

Forces of the Government of National Accord in Libya have launched an offensive against Khalifa Haftar’s forces.

While disclosing this on Saturday June 6, 2020, the GNA spokesman, Mohamad Gnounou, said the offensive was launched to seize the strategic city of Sirte.

This is coming as renegade military commander, Khalifa Haftar, and his Egyptian allies proposed a ceasefire following a string of military setbacks.

“The air force has carried out five strikes in the outskirts of Sirte,” GNA spokesman, Mohamad Gnounou, said.

“Orders have been given to our forces to begin their advance and to systematically attack all rebel positions,” he added.

GNA forces have repulsed Haftar’s 14-month offensive against the capital, Tripoli, and are now poised to drive on eastwards, taking advantage of stepped-up military support from Turkey.

Sirte is the hometown of former longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi and the last major settlement before the traditional boundary between Libya’s west and east.

Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) forces virtually captured the Mediterranean city of Sirte without a fight in January after one of Libya’s myriad local militias switched sides.

Beyond Sirte lies the prize of Libya’s main oil export ports, Haftar’s most important strategic asset.

Sirte is some 450km (280 miles) east of Tripoli, the town where Gaddafi put up his last stand against NATO-backed rebel forces in 2011.

On Saturday, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, said in Cairo that Haftar and other eastern leaders – including eastern parliament speaker Aguila Saleh – had signed up to a declaration calling for a ceasefire from 6am (04:00 GMT) on Monday.

“Heeding appeals from the major powers and the United Nations for a ceasefire… we pulled back 60km (40 miles) from the Greater Tripoli city limits,” Haftar’s spokesman, Ahmad al-Mesmari, said.

The initiative, called the “Cairo Declaration”, urged the withdrawal of “foreign mercenaries from all Libyan territory”, he added.

Sisi added that the declaration also called for “dismantling militias and handing over their weaponry so that the Libyan National Army [led by Haftar] would be able to carry out its military and security responsibilities and duties”.