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Fears of Clashes Resuming Between Militias in Tripoli

Members of the armed militias in the city of Sirte (AP)
Members of the armed militias in the city of Sirte (AP)
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Fears of Clashes Resuming Between Militias in Tripoli

Members of the armed militias in the city of Sirte (AP)
Members of the armed militias in the city of Sirte (AP)

Controversial movements of some armed militias affiliated with Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital, Tripoli, have raised fears of a new wave of clashes.

Head of the so-called Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade (TRB) Haithem Tajouri has recently launched a verbal attack on the GNA and its loyal forces describing it as a weak government.

His comments seemed to be in response to GNA Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha’s earlier attempts to control the entrances and exits of the capital.

Tajouri demanded that he be informed of whoever wants to enter Tripoli, whether patrols or any deployed force in the city.

Meanwhile, military commanders from the GNA-affiliated “Volcano of Rage” operation said TRB was on a state of alert.

Local residents have also noticed the sudden and unexplained repositioning of some militias in Tripoli during the past two days.

Local media have reported the appearance of the smuggler who has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council and is wanted by the Attorney General, Mohammed Kachlaf, beside GNA Defense Minister Salah el-Din Al-Namroush during his recent visit to the headquarters of the Petroleum Facilities Guard.

Kachlaf’s appearance after the arrest of his partner, Abd al-Rahman al-Milad in Tripoli in mid-October, raises questions on the engagement of the GNA Ministry of Interior in battles against militias.

Kachlaf has been controlling the Zawiya refinery for years. He is described as one of the rich and masters of smuggling in the western coastal regions, knowing that he commands militias affiliated with the Petroleum Facilities Guard. He is enlisted on the UN Security Council sanctions list, which includes travel bans and freezing of funds.

Namroush also employed an ISIS member after the Ministry of Defense assigned Mohammed Balaam to manage and follow up the exchange of detainees and corpses, in cooperation with the ministry’s permanent committee for humanitarian affairs, knowing that he had previously participated in the battles waged by extremists against the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces in Benghazi before his escape to Tripoli.

Spokesperson for the GNA Sirte and al-Jufrah operations room Brigadier General Abdul Hadi Dara has claimed that a member of the Sudanese “Janjaweed” militia was shot dead by the townspeople on Abu Hadi Island after attempting to rob a house.

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UN Envoy Condemns Intense Wave of Israeli Airstrikes on Syria

A Druze woman waves to relatives fleeing violence in Damascus, as they arrive in the buffer zone across from the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on May 3, 2025. (AFP)
A Druze woman waves to relatives fleeing violence in Damascus, as they arrive in the buffer zone across from the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on May 3, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Envoy Condemns Intense Wave of Israeli Airstrikes on Syria

A Druze woman waves to relatives fleeing violence in Damascus, as they arrive in the buffer zone across from the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on May 3, 2025. (AFP)
A Druze woman waves to relatives fleeing violence in Damascus, as they arrive in the buffer zone across from the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on May 3, 2025. (AFP)

The United Nations special envoy for Syria on Saturday condemned an intense wave of Israeli airstrikes as Israel said its forces were on the ground in Syria to protect the Druze minority sect following days of clashes with Syrian pro-government gunmen.

The late Friday airstrikes were reported in different parts of the capital, Damascus, and its suburbs, as well as southern and central Syria, local Syrian media reported. They came hours after Israel’s air force struck near Syria’s presidential palace after warning Syrian authorities not to march toward villages inhabited by Syrian Druze.

Israel’s military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, wrote on X that the strikes targeted a military post and anti-aircraft units. He also said the Israeli troops in Southern Syria were “to prevent any hostile force from entering the area or Druze villages" and that five Syrian Druze wounded in the fighting were transported for treatment in Israel.

The Israeli military issued another statement later Saturday saying that 12 warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes targeting infrastructure components and weapons across Syria, including anti-aircraft cannons and surface-to-air missile launchers.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported Saturday that four people were wounded in central Syria, and that the airstrikes hit the eastern Damascus suburb of Harasta as well as the southern province of Daraa and the central province of Hama.

UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen, denounced the strikes on X.

“I strongly condemn Israel’s continued and escalating violations of Syria’s sovereignty, including multiple airstrikes in Damascus and other cities,” Pedersen wrote Saturday, calling for an immediate cease of attacks and for Israel to stop “endangering Syrian civilians and to respect international law and Syria’s sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, and independence.”

Four days of clashes between pro-government gunmen and Druze fighters have left nearly 100 people dead and raised fears of deadly sectarian violence.

The clashes are the worst between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters since the early December fall of President Bashar al-Assad, whose family ruled Syria with an iron grip for more than five decades.

Israel has its own Druze community and officials have said they will protect the Druze of Syria and warned armed groups from entering predominantly Druze areas. Israeli forces have carried out hundreds of airstrikes since Assad’s fall and captured a buffer zone along the Golan Heights.

More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria.

Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. In Syria, they largely live in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus, mainly in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to the south.