CAIRO, June 30 (AP): The forces of Libya's Khalifa Hifter said that Turkish vessels and interests are "legitimate targets" in its battle to seize the capital of Tripoli, after it accused Turkey of helping rival militias allied with the UN-supported government.
The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Hifter, already controls much of the country's east and south. It launched an offensive against the weak Tripoli-based government in April.
The fighting has threatened to plunge Libya into another bout of violence on the scale of the 2011 conflict that ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and led to his death.
A spokesman for the LNA, Ahmed al-Mesmari, said Friday the country had "come under illegitimate Turkish aggression" in recent weeks.
"Turkey has become directly involved in the battle (for Tripoli), with its soldiers, planes, sea ships and all the supplies that now reach Misrata, Tripoli and Zuwara directly," al-Mesmari said.
He said Turkey had helped push the LNA out of the town of Gharyan, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Tripoli. The town was a key supply route for Hifter's forces pushing toward the capital.
Turkish forces also bombed LNA positions and provided air cover for militias allied with the Tripoli-based government to retake the town, he said.
Al-Mesmari said LNA forces have now been ordered to target any Turkish ships, strategic sites or companies operating in Libya or its territorial waters, and to arrest any Turkish nationals in Libya.
Libyan officials said they had carried out "heavy" airstrikes in retaliation against the fighters who retook Gharyan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
The government in the east said LNA forces were killed after being captured alive in hospitals in Gharyan, a claim denied by Gharyan Gov. Yousef Bediri, who is loyal to the Tripoli government.
Bediri called on rights groups to investigate the killing in Gharyan saying the LNA troops were killed earlier during the fighting.
Col. Mohamed Gnono, a spokesman for the Tripoli government forces, told a news conference in Gharyan that they captured over 150 of Hifter's troops and seized armored vehicles, three drones and US-made weapons and missiles.
