{"id":42450,"date":"2020-04-28T20:23:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T20:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42450"},"modified":"2020-04-28T20:23:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T20:23:29","slug":"egypt-tech-firm-aids-virus-fight-with-3d-printed-face-shields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42450","title":{"rendered":"Egypt tech firm aids virus fight with 3D-printed face shields"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nCAIRO: Eastern Libyan forces laying siege to the country\u2019s capital of Tripoli accused their rivals Tuesday of staging an attack in which a Turkish drone hit a food truck convoy in the country\u2019s west, killing at least five civilians.
The militia groups loosely allied with a UN-supported but weak government in Tripoli denied attacking civilians, saying they targeted trucks carrying equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take the capital.
Khalifa Haftar, who declared the start of an operation to root out the militias and unify the country in 2014, is commander of the east-based forces attempting to take control of Tripoli. They control most of eastern and southern Libya. The besieged administration in Tripoli rules just a corner of the country\u2019s west. Both sides are supported by a network of fractious militias and foreign powers.
Haftar launched his Tripoli offensive last April. In recent weeks, violence has escalated, with both sides accusing each other of shelling civilian neighborhoods. The UN has said the violence and worsening humanitarian crisis in Libya could amount to war crimes.
Turkey has sent armored drones, air defenses and more recently, Syrian militants with links to extremist groups to prop up the embattled Tripoli government.
There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials on the alleged drone attack.
Ahmed Al-Mosmari, a spokesman for Haftar forces, said the drone strike took place late Monday near the district of Mizda, 184 kilometers south of Tripoli.
The attack came after Haftar, in an attempted show of strength, declared Monday that a 2015 UN-brokered political deal to unite the oil-rich country was \u201ca thing of the past.\u201d
The Tripoli-based government said it wasn\u2019t surprised by Haftar\u2019s announcement and urged Libyans to join \u201ca comprehensive dialogue and continue on the democratic path to reach a comprehensive and permanent solution based on ballot boxes.\u201d
While the 2015 agreement has failed to bring unity or stability to the divided country, Haftar\u2019s announcement threatens to further complicate UN efforts to broker a political settlement to the civil war.
In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano on Tuesday criticized Haftar\u2019s announcement. He said \u201cany attempt to push forward unilateral solutions, even more so by force, will never provide a sustainable solution for the country.\u201d
Stano said the December 2015 agreement remains the mos viable framework for a political solution in Libya. He called on international stakeholders in Libya to \u201cincrease their pressure\u201d on the warring parties to end the fighting and bring about a political settlement.
Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya expert at The Netherlands Institute of International Relations, said Haftar\u2019s move was \u201cpretty much a coup\u201d that revealed \u201caspirations that aren\u2019t new.\u201d
\u201cHaftar takes yet another step toward full military autocracy and absolute control over the territories currently aligned with the LNA,\u201d he said.
The move could also give the military commander an opportunity to take economic measures to address serious economic and financial crises in areas under his control.
Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled long-time dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who was later killed. The chaos has worsened in the recent round of fighting as foreign backers increasingly intervene, despite their pledges to the contrary at a high-profile peace summit in Berlin earlier this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAIRO: Eastern Libyan forces laying siege to the country\u2019s capital of Tripoli accused their rivals Tuesday of staging an attack in which a Turkish drone hit a food truck convoy in the country\u2019s west, killing at least five civilians.The militia groups loosely allied with a UN-supported but weak government in Tripoli denied attacking civilians, saying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42450","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=42450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}