By Jamal Adel.
Beida, 11 January 2015:
Ghat residents and local forces have repelled an attempt by Libya Dawn to take over the . . .[restrict]Ghat airport this weekend.
Some 25 armoured vehicles carrying Libya Dawn forces were reported to have stormed the Ghat Airport on Friday night. The forces were said to be made up of a combination of Tuaregs and Misratans from the Sharara oilfield which they now control.
However, the town’s youth and its elders, fearful that the airport was going to become a military target managed with the help of local fighters to push Libya Dawn out of the airport Saturday, reportedly without any use of force.
A local brigade, said to support the LNA, is now back in control of the airport and wants to prevent fighting at the airport or the facility being used for anything other than civilian purposes.
Unlike the largely Tuareg town which has been suffering from an acute shortage of food and other necessities because of the crisis in Libya, the airport was earlier in the hands of Misrata’s Third Force. In November, a plane bringing aid from the UAE, was briefly detained by the Misratans. [/restrict]
