The Libyan Army of the country's U.N.-backed legitimate government on Monday announced that forces loyal to the eastern-based putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar have blocked the entrance to the strategic Sirte province in the north and closed off an area there.
Abdulhadi Dirah, the spokesman for the army's Sirte-Jufra Joint Operations Unit, in a statement, said: "Haftar militia closed the Erbain area east of Sirte, they do not allow the entrance of vehicles and people."
Dirah added that militias have prevented people from the east and other regions from entering Sirte.
The Libyan Army on Aug. 27 had announced that Haftar militias attacked Libyan Army forces with Grad missiles in the west of the coastal city of Sirte, in violation of the recently announced cease-fire.
Fayez Sarraj, head of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), on Aug. 21 announced a cease-fire and called for the demilitarization of Sirte and Jufra, which would mean the withdrawal of Haftar’s forces.
Aguila Saleh Issa, the speaker of the eastern-based House of Representatives and a Haftar ally, also supported the demilitarization of Sirte, calling for it to be the temporary seat of the new government, but did not make any mention of Jufra.
However, Haftar forces rejected calls for the cease-fire, claiming that the GNA was preparing to attack Sirte.
Haftar launched an offensive to seize Tripoli from the internationally recognized GNA in April 2019 but was beaten back.
Fighting has stalled around the central Mediterranean port of Sirte, the gateway to Libya's eastern oil fields and export terminals and to the key Jufra air base to the south.
Sirte lies roughly halfway between Tripoli in the west and Libya's second-largest city Benghazi in the east.
