Military deployment in the west against traffickers and smugglers

The government of national unity in Libya, based in Tripoli and recognized by the UN, announced on Monday that it had deployed armed forces and carried out strikes in one of the main western cities to combat smuggling “hotbeds”. and drug trafficking A division of the “West Coast Military Region is continuing operations aimed at destroying centers of crime and smuggling” in the Zawiya area, the command of this armed force attached to the western government.

The scene of recurring deadly fights between rival gangs, Zawiya, located 45 km west of Tripoli and home to one of the country’s main oil refineries, is also known for trafficking of all kinds, such as the smuggling of goods and of fuel with neighboring Tunisia. During the night from Sunday to Monday, “a series of airstrikes (with drones, editor’s note) targeted and destroyed fuel trafficking sites, particularly in Asban”, a rural outskirts of Zawiya, according to the press release. No information was given on possible victims.

Footage filmed by the force shows a military truck ramming the entrance to a store or warehouse. Homes were also destroyed in this operation which began in Zawiya but which concerns the entire western zone. Other images show tanks and pickup trucks topped with machine guns driving through the city.

The operation which started on Sunday was announced on Friday. The command of the “West Coast Military Region” had called on residents to “stay away from sites targeted during precision airstrikes, in order to preserve their safety due to the possibility of the presence of explosive devices” .

Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, Libya has been undermined by divisions fueled by the proliferation of armed groups with shifting allegiances and the development of trafficking networks which often retreat into the cities.

This North African country, rich in oil, is governed by two rival executives, that of Tripoli and that affiliated with Marshal Khalifa Haftar, in the east. At the end of May 2023, at least two people were killed and several others injured during drone airstrikes in a similar operation in and around Zawiya.