TRIPOLI — Warplanes from Libya’s internationally recognized government on Thursday bombed the only functioning commercial airport in the city, delaying the arrival of a delegation from a rival parliament for U.N. peace talks, officials said.
The attack on Matiga airport, a military base used for commercial flights after the main airport closed following heavy fighting there last summer, damaged the runway.
No casualties were reported.
But the bombing delayed the departure of a delegation from Tripoli for Morocco for talks hosted by the United Nations to persuade the country’s warring parties to form a national government.
Libya is locked in a power struggle between two governments and parliaments battling for control of the large North African country and its oil resources four years after rebels ousted veteran dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Internationally recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and the elected parliament have been confined to eastern Libya since an armed faction seized Tripoli last summer, reinstating the previous assembly and setting up a rival administration.
Mohamed El Hejazi, a spokesman for forces allied to Thinni, said the attack was carried out as “part of a war against terrorism that will continue until Libya has been freed of terrorism.”
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