Two armed groups in eastern Libya throw support to unity government

Two major armed groups in eastern Libya announced their support on Saturday for the UN-backed national unity government as it struggles to establish its authority in the east of the country.

The Government of National Accord (GNA), established in Tripoli two months ago, has been trying to unify violence-ridden Libya and exert its control over the entire North African country.

However, it faces opposition from a competing authority based in the east that has its own armed forces - militias and some units of the national army - commanded by controversial General Khalifa Haftar.

The two groups formerly loyal to Haftar - the special anti-terrorist force and a military intelligence brigade - announced on Saturday at a joint news conference with GNA Defence Minister Al-Mahdi Al-Bargathi that they have decided to throw their lot in with the GNA.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj said his GNA was working with brigades from the western city of Misrata and eastern Ajdabiya that were advancing on the Islamic State (IS) group in their coastal stronghold of Sirte.

No one - not even the controversial eastern commander Haftar - will be excluded from a national army as long as they submit to central political authority, Sarraj told Reuters in his first interview with international media since arriving in Tripoli in late March.

"We are sure that the battle and the eradication of Islamic State will be carried out by Libyans," he also said.

"I think that what was achieved from Ajdabiya to Sirte and from Misrata to Sirte was a good achievement, given the capabilities that the fighters have."

On the ground, forces loyal to the GNA said on Saturday that they had retaken an air base near the coastal city of Sirte, bastion of IS.

The pro-government forces announced on Facebook they had "retaken control of Al-Gordabiya air base", 15km south of Sirte.

They said the GNA forces were able to take the complex with the backing of "five air raids against jihadists and their equipment".

GNA forces also announced the "liberation from the hands of Daesh" (an Arabic acronym for IS) of the town of Abu Hadi, 15km southeast of Sirte.

The unity government's forces and those of the rival authority in the east are currently engaged in a race to be the first to drive IS out of Sirte.

The international community fears this could jeopardise efforts to defeat IS, whose threat has grown since they established a foothold in Libya at the end of 2014.

Last week, the UN's special envoy on Libya, Martin Kobler, called on all the country's armed factions to unite against IS.

He said the rival administrations that have established themselves since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 should "unite their efforts" into a single army.

Led by Sarraj and internationally recognised, the GNA has already received the support of former authorities who controlled the capital and armed militias in the west.

The Libyan Central Bank and the State Oil Company have also rallied to his authority.

But the unity administration has yet to receive a vote of confidence in parliament, which remains linked to the former internationally recognised government, also based in the east.