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Libya Presidency Denies Armed Groups Attacked Hotel Where it Meets

Libyan Foreign Minister, Najla al-Manqoush. (Reuters)
Libyan Foreign Minister, Najla al-Manqoush. (Reuters)
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Libya Presidency Denies Armed Groups Attacked Hotel Where it Meets

Libyan Foreign Minister, Najla al-Manqoush. (Reuters)
Libyan Foreign Minister, Najla al-Manqoush. (Reuters)

A senior official at Libya's new Presidential Council denied on Saturday that groups who entered a hotel where the body meets had been armed or used force, playing down an incident that had appeared to illustrate the risks facing the unity government.

Earlier, the Council's spokeswoman had said armed groups had stormed the Corinthia Hotel on Friday, though she also said nobody from the body had been in the building at the time.

"There was no kidnapping, gunfire, or an attack on me or the hotel," the head of the Presidential Council's office, Mohamed al-Mabrouk said in a social media video, adding that he had been in the hotel at the time of the incident.

Mabrouk said the head of the Presidential Council, which functions as Libya's head of state for now, would meet with the groups involved.

The Presidential Council was chosen through a United Nations-facilitated process that also selected a new Government of National Unity (GNU) that took office in March, replacing rival administrations in east and west.

Armed groups based in western Libya have voiced anger at the GNU Foreign Minister, Najla al-Manqoush.

Challenges
Head of the GNU Abdelhamid Dbeibeh has worked to win support from Libya's many rival factions, forming a large cabinet that includes an array of ideological and regional figures.

However, both the Presidential Council and GNU have faced internal criticism and challenges to their authority.

In eastern Libya, commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) still hold sway nearly a year after their 14-month offensive to seize the capital collapsed.

In Tripoli, the armed groups that pushed Haftar back from the capital with Turkish support still control the streets.

Foreign mercenaries remain entrenched on both sides of the heavily fortified front line, despite international calls for the warring sides to pull them from the country.

Last week, Manqoush repeated the call for all foreign fighters to leave while standing next to visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Turkey says its military presence in Libya is different to that of other foreign forces because it was invited by the previous Government of National Accord (GNA) and it will not withdraw until others do.

Before Friday's incident, an operations room for the Tripoli armed groups said on social media that it had met to discuss "irresponsible statements" by Manqoush and later called on the GNU to formally reject Haftar.

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Syrian Opposition Fighters Sweep into Aleppo, Army Says Dozens of Soldiers Killed

A billboard bearing a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag are torn by anti-government fighters in the northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. (AFP)
A billboard bearing a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag are torn by anti-government fighters in the northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. (AFP)
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Syrian Opposition Fighters Sweep into Aleppo, Army Says Dozens of Soldiers Killed

A billboard bearing a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag are torn by anti-government fighters in the northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. (AFP)
A billboard bearing a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag are torn by anti-government fighters in the northern city of Aleppo on November 30, 2024. (AFP)

The Syrian army said on Saturday dozens of its soldiers had been killed in a major attack by opposition fighters who swept into the city of Aleppo in the northwest, forcing the army to redeploy in the biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad in years.

The surprise attack led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has jolted the frontlines of the Syrian civil war that have largely been frozen since 2020, reviving fighting in a corner of the fractured country near the Turkish border. The army said it was preparing a counteroffensive to restore state authority.

Acknowledging the opposition advance, the Syrian army command said the factions had entered large parts of Aleppo, which had been under full state control since government forces backed by Russia and Iran drove opposition factions out eight years ago.

Images from Aleppo showed a group of opposition fighters gathered in the city's Saadallah al-Jabiri Square after entering the city overnight, a billboard of Assad looming behind them.

"I am the son of Aleppo, and was displaced from it eight years ago, in 2016. Thank God we just returned. It is an indescribable feeling," said Ali Jumbaa, a fighter, television footage showed.

The Syrian military command said militants had attacked in large numbers and from multiple directions, prompting "our armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation aimed at strengthening the defense lines in order to absorb the attack, preserve the lives of civilians and soldiers, and prepare for a counterattack".

The army said bombardment had stopped the fighters from establishing fixed positions. It promised to "expel them and restore the control of the state ... over the entire city and its countryside".

Two opposition sources said the fighters had also captured the city of Maraat al-Numan in Idlib province, bringing all of that province under their control, in what would be another significant blow to Assad.

The fighting revives the long-simmering Syrian conflict as the wider region is roiled by wars in Gaza and Lebanon, where a truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday.

The attack was launched from opposition-held areas of northwestern Syria that remain outside Assad's grasp.

Two Syrian military sources said that Russian and Syrian warplanes targeted opposition fighters in an Aleppo suburb on Saturday.

Speaking on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow regarded the opposition attack as a violation of Syria's sovereignty. "We are in favor of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the area and restoring constitutional order as soon as possible," he said.

The Syrian Civil Defense, a rescue service operating in opposition-held parts of Syria, said in a post on X that Syrian government and Russian aircraft carried out airstrikes on residential neighborhoods, a gas station and a school in opposition-held Idlib, killing four civilians and wounding six others.

The two Syrian military sources said Russia has promised Damascus extra military aid that would start arriving in the next 72 hours. Authorities closed Aleppo airport and roads to the city, the two military sources and a third army source said.

The Syrian army has been told to follow "safe withdrawal" orders from the main areas of the city that the opposition fighters had entered, the three military sources said.

IRAN'S ROLE IN THE REGION

The opposition, including factions backed by Türkiye, said on Friday their fighters were sweeping through various Aleppo neighborhoods.

Mustafa Abdul Jaber, a commander in the Jaish al-Izza brigade, said their speedy advance had been helped by a lack of Iran-backed manpower to support the government in the broader Aleppo province.

Iran's allies in the region have suffered a series of blows at the hands of Israel as the Gaza war has expanded through the Middle East.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, in a phone call with his Syrian counterpart on Friday, accused the United States and Israel of being behind the opposition attack.

The fighters have said the campaign was in response to stepped-up strikes in recent weeks against civilians by the Russian and Syrian air forces on areas of Idlib province, and to preempt any attacks by the Syrian army.

Opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Türkiye, which supports the fighters, had given a green light to the offensive. Turkish officials were not immediately available to comment on Saturday.

Türkiye’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the clashes between opposition and government forces had resulted in an undesirable escalation of tensions.

In a statement, spokesperson Oncu Keceli said that avoiding greater instability in the region was Türkiye’s priority, adding that Ankara had warned that recent attacks on Idlib undermined the spirit and implementation of de-escalation agreements.