LIBYAN fighters allied with the country’s U.N.-supported government in Tripoli pressed their advance yesterday, boosted by recent battlefield gains and their rivals’ withdrawal from around the capital, the warring sides reported.

The push came despite a unilateral cease-fire proposal over the weekend by Egypt, a backer of the rival Libyan forces commanded by Khalifa Hifter, who has waged a year-long campaign, trying to capture Tripoli from the militias allied with the U.N.-supported but weak government.

The Tripoli forces, backed by Turkey, gained the upper hand last week after retaking the capital’s airport, all main entrance and exit points to the city and a string of key towns near Tripoli, forcing Hifter’s fighters to withdraw — defeats their command painted as a tactical measure to give the U.N.-backed peace process a chance.

Egypt’s proposal, announced by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Saturday, envisaged a cease-fire starting yesterday. Hifter accepted it, as did Aguila Saleh, speaker of the country’s east-based parliament.

But the militias fighting to defend Tripoli rejected the proposal, instead pushing eastward toward the coastal city of Sirte, a former stronghold of the Islamic State group that Hifter’s forces captured in January.

(SD-Agencies)