By Ali Salem.
Tripoli, 4 December 2014:
The Libyan National Army (LNA) claimed today it was moving closer to Tripoli and that fighting . . .[restrict]was taking place near Ajilat, southwest of Sabratha. It also said it planned to move toward Zawia, just 45 kilometres west of the capital.
Meanwhile LNA aircraft are reported to have today carried new air strikes in Qasr Ben Gashir and Zuwara. According to a operations room official in Zintan, the target in the former was a farm where Libya Dawn weapons were being stored. He told the Libya Herald that the target in the latter was the port. Yesterday, an LNA plane attacked a boat allegedly carrying weapons and heading to the port.
Mohamed Al-Hejazi, the Benghazi-based spokesman for Operation Dignity, confirmed the Qasr Ben Gashir attack. The village, next to Tripoli International Airport, was the centre of Libya Dawn operations during the attack on the airport in the summer.
The Zintani spokesman also claimed this afternoon that Zintani forces, as part of the LNA, were now between 15 and 20 kilometres from Ras Jedir on the border with Tunisia. He said that the Tunisians had agreed to close it “within hours”. The move, he claimed, was to stop the Zuwarans, currently in control of the border post and loyal to Libya Dawn, from crossing into Tunisia.
The Zintanis had last week said they intended to take the border crossing. [/restrict]