BENGHAZI — Libya’s east-based forces said they captured the strategic coastal city of Sirte on Monday from the internationally recognized government.
The announcement comes amid an a major offensive by the east-based forces to take the capital Tripoli. The city is the seat of a rival Libyan government supported by the United Nations. Libya is currently governed by dueling authorities in the east and in Tripoli in the west, each relying on different militias.
Commander Khalifa Hifter declared a “final” and decisive battle to take Tripoli last month. Fighting and shelling between the two sides has been raging there since April, with neither side making much progress.
Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for Hifter’s self-styled Libyan National Army, announced Sirte had been taken in a press conference in the eastern city of Benghazi.