Eastern Libyan forces commander Khalifa Haftar urged his troops trying to take Tripoli to battle harder and teach their enemies an even bigger lesson, because the Muslim month of Ramadan that begins on Monday was a month of holy war.
His comments came just hours after the United Nations called for a week-long humanitarian truce following a month of fighting for the capital that has displaced 50,000 people, killed around 400, and badly damaged some southern districts.
Haftar had already defied the United Nations when he launched his Tripoli offensive a month ago on the same day U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was visiting the capital to prepare a national reconciliation conference.
Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which is allied to a parallel government in the east, has not been able to breach the southern defences of Tripoli, which is held by the internationally recognized government.
On an audiotape released by his force’s spokesman, Haftar said Ramadan had not been a reason to halt previous battles when he seized the eastern cities of Benghazi and Derna as he expanded his power and the country collapsed into chaos after the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.