Flights in Tripoli airport resume after attack

TRIPOLI

The flights resumed in Libya’s Mitiga International Airport on Thursday after they were suspended as forces loyal to renegade commander Khalifa Haftar targeted the building with rockets.

Hisham Abu Shakwat, deputy transportation minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA), said in a written statement that the air traffic was back to normal.

Earlier on Thursday, the airport’s administration announced on its Facebook page that the attack caused panic, affecting both travelers and staff members.

Mustafa Al-Mujie, spokesman for Operation Volcano of Anger, a military campaign launched by government forces, confirmed to Anadolu Agency that pro-Haftar militias had fired the rockets.

He added that random shelling by forces loyal to Haftar in Al-Hadaba area had killed one woman and injured many other people.

The attack came a day after the UN Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution calling for "a lasting cease-fire" in the North African country.

Fourteen countries voted for the resolution drafted by the U.K. and Germany. It is the first binding text adopted by the 15-nation UNSC since the conflict flared up last year.

The resolution also includes plans for a monitoring mission in Libya, and urges states to stop sending arms to the war-ravaged country.

Based in Libya’s east, Haftar's forces launched a military campaign in April to capture Tripoli from the internationally recognized government, but have so far failed to progress beyond the city’s outskirts.

Since the ouster of late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, two seats of power have emerged in Libya: one in east, supported mainly by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and another in Tripoli, which enjoys UN and international recognition.

*Bassel Ibrahim contributed to this report from Ankara