TRIPOLI : Libya's Government of National Unity (GNU) said it had conducted air strikes against smuggling networks on Thursday, with blasts hitting a western city that is home to armed factions that have backed a rival administration. Three residents of Zawiya, just west of Tripoli, said they had heard explosions on Thursday with one also hearing gunfire. While the Tripoli-based government has no known air power of its own, allied Turkish military forces have previously deployed drones in western Libya. The GNU said "our national air force" had targeted what it called criminal gangs involved in trafficking fuel, drugs and people in western coastal areas. Libya has had little stability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and it split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions though there has been no major warfare since a 2020 ceasefire.
