New airstrikes were launched yesterday Saturday by forces loyal to the UN-recognized Libyan government against positions of traffickers in the western part of the country, according to media reports.

The Tripoli-based government announced on Thursday that strikes had been launched against traffickers’ positions in the same area in western Libya.

“Airstrikes were carried out on Saturday by remote-controlled drones that targeted and destroyed tanker trucks carrying smuggled fuel” and a position “near the Bir al-Ghanam bridge” in the town of Zawiya (45 km west of Tripoli, according to the television network Libya al Ahrar.

The government did not confirm the bombings. No casualties have been reported so far.

Injuries were also reported overnight Friday into Saturday in other areas of the city, residents told AFP.

The Ministry of Defense announced that airstrikes were carried out on Thursday “against hideouts of fuel, drug and people traffickers in the area of ​​the western coastline” of the north African country.

According to media, the affected positions were located on the outskirts of the city.

Zawiya has for weeks become a theater of conflict between armed groups engaged in human and fuel trafficking, among other things.

However, Libya’s parliament, which is based in the eastern part of the country, accused Tripoli on Friday of carrying out an “attack” on the city’s lawmaker, Ali Bouhriba, an opponent of Abdelhamid Dbayba’s government.

No casualties were reported in Thursday’s strikes.

The UN support mission in Libya (MANUL) assessed on Friday that the “events” show that there is an “urgent need to reunify Libya and strengthen the security forces and the armed forces to guarantee the security of Libyans”.

Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, Libya has been plunged into chaos and continues to be undermined by the action of a myriad of paramilitary organizations that tend to switch sides.

Two governments have been vying for power in Libya for the past year: one based in Tripoli (west), led by Mr Dbayba, and recognized by the UN; the other based in the eastern part of the country and supported by the powerful Marshal Khalifa Haftar and the parliament.