An Islamist Libyan militia on Sunday said it had captured the main airport in the capital Tripoli from a rival militia.
“The forces of Libya’s Dawn have been able to enter the airport after taking control of the strategic Naqlia base,” Alaa al-Heweik, a spokesman for the militia, told independent Libyan broadcaster al-Nabaa .
“Clashes are still going on at several other sites,” he added without elaborating.
The self-styled Libya’s Dawn militia is part of the Islamist-allied Misrata fighters’ movement, who have been trying since mid-July to seize the Tripoli International airport from the Zintan militia that is close to the country’s centrist political groups.
The newly-elected Parliament late on Saturday declared the Libya’s Dawn militia and its allied Ansar al-Sharia to be “terrorist and outlawed” groups.
“They are a legitimate target for the national Libyan army that we strongly support,” the Parliament said in a statement.
In a sign of mounting power struggle in Libya, the former governing legislature, the National Council, plans to reconvene, according to Libyan media reports.
In recent months Libya has seen its worst violence since long-time dictator Muammar Qadhafi was toppled in an armed revolt in 2011.
Forces loyal to rogue General Khalifa Haftar have pursued a military campaign against Islamist militias in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi since May.
Some army commanders and local tribes have since backed Gen. Haftar’s drive. His critics have accused him of seeking power, a charge he has repeatedly denied.
The violence in both Tripoli and Benghazi has prompted several countries to evacuate their citizens, including diplomats, from Libya.
Since Qadhafi’s ousting, Libya’s rulers have struggled to re-establish security, with the oil-rich country paralyzed by political infighting and the proliferation of militias and weapons.
