The battle for Libya’s capital intensified yesterday as the United Nations Security Council prepared to meet to discuss the crisis gripping the North African country, where armed rivals are locked in a deadly power struggle.

The closed-door talks in New York came a day after the UN postponed a Libyan national conference aimed at drawing up an election roadmap because of fighting raging on Tripoli’s doorstep. 

Heavy arms fire was heard during much of Tuesday night in the Ain Zara district on the southeastern outskirts of Tripoli as military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s forces pressed an assault aimed at taking the capital from the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls swathes of the country’s east, said it had seized a barracks in the Aziziya area around 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of Tripoli after “ferocious clashes”.

It said several fighters loyal to the UN-backed government had been detained and their weapons seized. The internationally recognised government carried out several air raids against LNA positions south of Tripoli, and also hit supply lines in central Libya, GNA spokesman Colonel Mohamed Gnounou said Tuesday.

Haftar’s forces appear to be advancing on two fronts, from the south and southeast of Tripoli, while coastal roads to the east and west of the city are defended by fighters loyal to the GNA.

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The national conference, which had been scheduled for April 14-16 in the central city of Ghadames, aimed to fix dates for legislative and presidential elections, and work towards a new constitution.

The UN has warned that nearly half a million children in Tripoli were “at immediate risk”.

Libya has been riven by divisions since the NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Moamer Gadhafi in 2011, with various armed groups and two parallel governments vying for territory and oil wealth.

UN children’s agency (UNICEF) urged all parties “to refrain from committing grave violations” against children, including the recruitment of child soldiers. International efforts to end the Libyan conflict have repeatedly failed. Rival leaders agreed last year to hold elections before December 10, 2018 under a French plan, but that vote never materialised. 

Haftar has defied international calls, including from the Security Council and the United States, to halt the surprise offensive launched on Thursday. The UN’s high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, called for the warring parties to “spare civilians, including refugees and migrants trapped in the country”.