The battle for Tripoli has taken another turn as Russian fighters allied with Libyan renegade commander Khalifa Haftar have retreated from the front lines.
Haftar’s forces have been trying to capture the capital for 13 months, but they have suffered a string of defeats in recent fighting against the UN-recognised government, which is supported by fighters from Turkey.
The mayor of Bani Waleed confirmed the Russians left from an airbase in the town, in three military planes.
Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed reports from Tripoli, the Libyan capital.
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In This Story: Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest.
The sovereign state is made of three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya and contains over three million of Libya’s seven million people. The second-largest city is Benghazi, which is located in eastern Libya.
Libya became independent as a kingdom in 1951. A military coup in 1969 overthrew King Idris I. Parts of Libya are currently split between rival Tobruk and Tripoli-based governments, as well as various tribal and Islamist militias.
Libya is a member of the United Nations (since 1955), the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League, the OIC and OPEC. The country’s official religion is Islam, with 96.6% of the Libyan population being Sunni Muslims.
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