{"id":40700,"date":"2019-09-01T15:22:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T15:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40700"},"modified":"2019-09-01T15:22:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T15:22:53","slug":"lebanese-army-says-israeli-drone-breached-airspace-dropped-incendiary-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40700","title":{"rendered":"Lebanese army says Israeli drone breached airspace, dropped incendiary material"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"55\">\n<p>\nTRIPOLI: Rocket fire by forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar against the Libyan capital\u2019s sole functioning airport wounded four civilians overnight, the UN-recognized government said on Sunday.<br \/>The strikes coincided with the arrival of a Libyan plane inbound from the Saudi Arabia, which was carrying pilgrims on their way back from Makkah.<br \/>Three pilgrims, including a woman, were among four civilians wounded, said Wedad Abu Niran, a spokesman for the UN-recognized Government of National Accord\u2019s health ministry.<br \/>Airport director Lotfi Al-Tabib said Mitiga\u2019s runway was damaged and a Libyan Airlines plane was hit by shrapnel, putting it out of service.<br \/>Flights have been suspended \u201cuntil further notice,\u201d Tabib added.<br \/>The Tripoli-based GNA controls the former military air base east of the city, which has been used by civilian traffic since Tripoli international airport suffered severe damage during fighting in 2014.<br \/>In a statement, the GNA blamed what it called a \u201cterrorist attack\u201d on forces of Haftar and urged the international community to assume \u201cits responsibilities concerning the protection of civilians.\u201d<br \/>Haftar\u2019s self-styled Libyan National Army launched an offensive on April 4 to conquer Tripoli.<br \/>The two sides have since been embroiled in a stalemate on the capital\u2019s southern outskirts and Haftar\u2019s forces have allegedly repeatedly targeted Mitiga, accusing the GNA of using it for \u201cmilitary ends.\u201d<br \/>A similar strike on Mitiga killed a guard and wounded several security agents on August 15.<br \/>Last week, the airport closed temporarily due to a rocket strike that hit as two planes were arriving, though no causalities were reported.<br \/>Haftar\u2019s forces say they are targeting \u201cTurkish drones\u201d that they claim take off from the airport to conduct strikes on their troops in the south of Tripoli.<br \/>The UN mission in Libya said it is concerned by the \u201cgrowing frequency\u201d of these attacks, which have come close to hitting civilian aircraft.<br \/>Since April, fighting between GNA and Haftar forces has killed at least 1,093 people and wounded 5,752, while some 120,000 others have been displaced, according to the World Health Organization.<br \/>Libya has been mired in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRIPOLI: Rocket fire by forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar against the Libyan capital\u2019s sole functioning airport wounded four civilians overnight, the UN-recognized government said on Sunday.The strikes coincided with the arrival of a Libyan plane inbound from the Saudi Arabia, which was carrying pilgrims on their way back from Makkah.Three pilgrims, including a woman,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}