Turkey says may hold off sending troops to Libya

Turkey may hold off sending troops to Libya if forces loyal to eastern Commander Khalifa Haftar halt their offensive against the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and pull back, the Turkish vice president says.

The Turkish parliament is due to debate and vote on a bill mandating the deployment of military forces to Libya on Thursday after Fayez al-Serraj's Government of National Accord (GNA) requested support as part of a military cooperation agreement. 

"After the bill passed from the parliament...it might happen that we would see something different, a different stance and they would say 'okay, we are withdrawing, dropping the offensive'," Fuat Oktay said in an interview with Andalou news agency on Wednesday. "Then, why would we go there?"

Oktay also said that Ankara hoped the Turkish bill would send a deterrent message to the warring parties.

Ankara has already sent military supplies to the GNA despite a United Nations embargo, according to a UN report seen by Reuters, and has said it will continue to support it.

Haftar's forces have received support from Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. 

In early April, Haftar launched an offensive to capture the capital. Since then Tripoli's southern suburbs have been hit by deadly fighting. 

A spokesman for the UN-recognized government said three civilians were killed in an air raid on a town south of Tripoli on Wednesday.

"Three were killed and three wounded in an air raid on al-Sawani," Amin al-Hachemi, Spokesman for the Tripoli-based GNA, told AFP.

Al-Sawani lies around 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of the capital and under GNA control. 

Several shops were badly damaged in the air raid, Hachemi said. 

On their Facebook page, forces loyal to the GNA published pictures of badly damaged buildings and vehicles, and accused pro-Haftar forces of carrying out the raid.

GNA forces said in a statement that they had captured 25 pro-Haftar fighters on Wednesday.

According to UN figures published last month, clashes around Tripoli since April 4 have killed more than 280 civilians and 2,000 fighters, while over 140,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

ME