Haftar’s forces on the outskirts of Tripoli

Forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar had come within 35 km of the city and a powerful rival militia was racing to stop them, raising the possibility of renewed civil war.

The advance, by Haftar, appeared to mark a new and possibly decisive stage in the power struggle that has torn Libya apart since the Arab Spring uprising of 2011.

The move all but ruined plans for peace talks this month among competing Libyan factions. The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, had arrived in Tripoli for that purpose the previous day. On Thursday he urged “calm and restraint.”

In a joint statement on Thursday, the United States, Britain, France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates said they “urge all parties to immediately de-escalate tensions” and “will hold accountable any Libyan faction that precipitates further civil conflict.” The statement did not specify who had instigated the latest confrontation.

The United Nations Security Council was expected to meet on the crisis on Friday.

In an online video, Haftar, 75, nonetheless directed his troops to continue their march and enter Tripoli.

On Thursday, his militia said it had taken three towns on the outskirts of Tripoli — Gharyan,Surman, and Aziziya.

So far the reports are that there had been only minor violence, and it was unclear to what extent Haftar had struck bargains with local authorities to allow his troops to enter, or to what extent he fully controlled those towns.

Militia leaders from the city of Misurata — the most formidable power to rival Haftar — said Thursday that they were mobilizing their forces to Tripoli to stop him.

Libya’s highest religious authority, meanwhile, called on the public to take to the streets against Haftar’s campaign aimed at capturing the capital.

“The Libyan people should resist and fight against Haftar’s forces in Tripoli in order not to see crimes against humanity committed in [the eastern cities of] Derna and Benghazi,” Grand Mufti Sadiq Al-Ghariani told Al Jazeera.

Via The Libya Observer, Al Jazeera, and BBC