April 4, 2019
Khalifa Haftar launched his most ambitious offensive on April 4, 2019, driving his LNA columns toward Tripoli from the south just as UN Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Libya for peace talks — a deliberate humiliation. For 14 months, the LNA and GNA fought a stalemate at Tripoli's southern suburbs in a war transformed by drones. Turkey's intervention in early 2020, deploying troops, Bayraktar TB2 drones, and Syrian mercenaries, broke the siege. Russian Wagner Group mercenaries and UAE drones fought for Haftar but could not overcome Turkish air superiority. The battle ended in stalemate with neither side able to win outright.
Commanders