A source quoted by the issuer "Libya Ahrar" said that the men of the operation "Karma" (Dignity) took control of Murzuq after a siege of about 20 days. The contribution of the militias of General Kalifa Haftar is important. The last clashes had affected the artery linking Murzuq to Ghadwa, the source concluded. On February 22, the press office of the Benghazi General Command announced that it had taken "complete control of the city". The military of Haftar claim to have seized the means and weapons of the militias composed by Chadian rebels and to have captured several militiamen. The news is reported by the Italian press agency Nova.
The February 21 had registered more battles with incursions by the LNA forces, made up largely of Sudanese and Tuareg militiamen, inside the suburban areas of the city covered by the air raids of the hunters who left the Tamanhint airport. Murzuq, south of Sebha, is a city inhabited by a tebu population, hostile to the tuareg clans that instead support General Haftar. According to the version provided by the general command of the LNA, Murzuq would be nothing but the lair of the Chadian rebel militias and al Qaeda terrorists and the Islamic State fleeing from Cyrenaica, thesis used to justify the whole military operation under way in Fezzan. The offensive on Murzuq falls within the framework of the operation conducted by the Haftar forces in Fezzan, which began more than a month ago with the taking of the city of Sebha and subsequently the Sharara oil rig.
Haftar's advance south of Libya has certainly been flanked by France.Transalpine Mirages are known to have participated in the operations. Then the under-the-table actions of the French government in Libya do not end. Transalpine diplomacy is reportedly working to organize a summit between the head of the Libyan National Agreement Government (GNA), Fayez al Sarraj, and the commander of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA), Khalifa Haftar. French worries have arisen from the recent escalation of fighting in the south of the country. The news was leaked from the information site "Libya24" where it is specified that negotiations are underway for a summit between al Serraj and Haftar to be held in Paris on 25 and 26 February. At the moment, however, there are no official confirmations from Libyan institutions.
Eni south of Libya
But it is especially the field of El Feel that worries. According to the media around the field managed by Eni and Noc in collaboration with the Spanish Repsol, the French Total and the Austrian Omv, and the Norwegian Equinor, the tension would be high. Interviewed by Nova Agency, the head of the oil guards who control El Feel's plants, Abu Bakr Sugai, has denounced the fear of having to face an armed confrontation with the forces of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army. "At the moment in the El Feel plants the situation is under control with the oil guards that guarantee the safety of the wells. We are part of the oil guards of the province of Fezzan and we are headed by the government of a Libyan national agreement", Said Sugai. So today "the El Feel plants continue to work and have never stopped". The problem, however, is that at 100 kilometers away there are the plants of Sharara, controlled precisely by Haftar. "LNA's forces are also present in the area of Ghadwa which is 60 kilometers from Murzuq where we are - he added - and for this we expect at any moment that the men of Haftar can get here to engage in a fight On fire". An imminent attack on El Feel is considered probable by Sugai, considering that "just the day before yesterday there was a new air raid on Murzuq" of Haftar's loyal fighters. A Reuterstoday confirms that the oil field is still producing around 75 thousand barrels a day and that there are no fighting in the area despite some media at the beginning of the day have reported the statements of a Libyan military spokesman according to whom the Haftar militants would take the field control.
Italy does not remain to watch
The Ambassador of Italy to Libya, Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi, met with General Haftar at his military base in Rajma, in the east of Libya as reported by the “Address Libya” website. The two discussed the latest developments in Libya and bilateral relations. Haftar had already met in the days before the UN envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salamé, for talks on the latest developments in the country, including the situation in the southern region of Fezzan and preparations for the national conference organized by the United Nations. While Buccino had held two other meetings in Tripoli with the president of the High Council of State (a body that acts as a counterpart to the Tobruk House of Representatives), Khaled al Mishri, and the vice president of the Presidential Council Abdulsalam Kajman.