Air strike hits Libyan town “Zintan”

At least one warplane belonging to an armed group controlling Libya’s capital attacked a western town allied with the internationally recognized government on Wednesday, officials said, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat attacks.

Oil-producing Libya is divided, with Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni’s recognized government and his allies locked in a conflict with the armed faction that took over Tripoli in August and set up a rival administration.

The United Nations is trying to negotiate a deal to stop the North African country’s sliding deeper into civil war, four years after the uprising that toppled leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Jets attacked districts in the western town of Zintan in the mountains near the Tunisian border, hitting a warehouse but wounding no one, an official in Zintan said.

An official in the rival government in Tripoli said there had been an air strike, without elaborating. The Tripoli group has accused authorities in Zintan of using their airport to launch air strikes on western Libya.

War planes from Libya’s internationally recognised government attacked the last functioning airport in Tripoli on Monday.