Libya's LNA Launches Operation Near Southern Border after Chad Clashes

Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari. (AFP file photo)
Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari. (AFP file photo)
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Libya's LNA Launches Operation Near Southern Border after Chad Clashes

Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari. (AFP file photo)
Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari. (AFP file photo)

Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) has launched a military operation to secure the southern border, it said on Friday, after fighting near the area resumed between the government of Chad and a rebel group trying to unseat it.

Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Deby said on Sunday that the army was again fighting the Libya-based Chadian Front for Change and Concord (FACT) group, which quit a ceasefire last week amid clashes.

LNA spokesperson Ahmed al-Mismari said the operation would involve land and air forces. An LNA media unit distributed photographs of Haftar's son, Saddam Haftar, overseeing the operation with other LNA officers.

The media unit said the LNA had expelled members of the Chadian opposition and their families from a residential area they were using in a desert town 300km (200 miles) north of the border with Chad.

Libya has had little internal peace or security since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Moammar al-Gaddafi, and its southern desert border has become a major transit route for trafficking networks.



Israeli Military Says It Strikes Targets at Two Syrian Bases

FILE - Israeli army armored vehicles block a road leading to the town of Quneitra, Syria, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)
FILE - Israeli army armored vehicles block a road leading to the town of Quneitra, Syria, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)
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Israeli Military Says It Strikes Targets at Two Syrian Bases

FILE - Israeli army armored vehicles block a road leading to the town of Quneitra, Syria, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)
FILE - Israeli army armored vehicles block a road leading to the town of Quneitra, Syria, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it struck targets at two Syrian military bases, "Tadmur and T4", in the province of Homs, citing their military capabilities in a statement.
Israel has stepped up air strikes in Syria in recent months, targeting military sites it says are linked to Iranian forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, both allies of the former Syrian government, Reuters said.
The province of Homs, home to the T4 and Tadmur airbases, has been repeatedly hit because of its role in regional arms transfers.
The strikes intensified after the opposition factions ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, the culmination of more than a decade of civil war.
Israel has watched the upheaval in Syria with a mixture of hope and concern as it weighs the consequences of one of the most significant strategic shifts in the Middle East in years.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a faction that led efforts to topple Assad, has drawn particular scrutiny from the Israelis. Israel has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the presence of HTS or affiliated groups in southern Syria, and has called for the area to be demilitarized.
Since then, Israel has expanded its operations to targets in Latakia and near the Lebanese border, citing growing concerns over Iranian entrenchment and regional instability.