Islamist militia coalition Libya Dawn on Saturday rejected a call by special UN envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon to take part in a dialogue to end the ongoing crisis in the country.

“Libya militias strongly reject Leon’s call. This call must stop and the leaders must not comply with it, as it aims to increase division between the rebels and the leaders and weaken them for the benefit of the coup,” a statement by the information office of Libya Dawn militias said.

Leon confirmed last week his intention to invite leaders of the armed factions to participate in a dialogue session in parallel with a dialogue held in Morocco.

He said that the dialogue was aimed to discuss security arrangements for a cease-fire, along with the withdrawal of the armed militias from the cities.

Libya, a major oil producer in North Africa, has been witnessing a frayed political process after its leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled during the 2011 political turmoil.

The capital city of Tripoli fell to Libya Dawn last August. Libya Dawn established its own government to confront the internationally recognized one, currently in exile in the eastern town of Tobruk. The country is now deadlocked in a dogfight between the pro-secular army and Islamist militants.

The UN has brokered several rounds of dialogues between the opposing parties since September, but clashes remained despite a truce agreed on by factions.

Commander of the Libyan government in Tabruk General Khalifa Haftar said on Friday that he does not object to a military operation in Libya, similar to the one carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Sky News Arabic reported.

In an interview with the network Haftar said that his forces do not want to cause damage and destruction in Tripoli but those who are currently deployed there will move at the appropriate time.

The general said that the movement of his units would take place after more pressure is put on the western parts of the country, stressing that his forces are moving slowly, but with “very-well calculated steps.” He emphasised however that the military capture of Tripoli must be carried out by forces under his command only.

General Haftar criticised the current UNSC sanctions on the supply of weapons to the Libyan army. He also criticised the EU’s efforts to secure a resolution to target illegal migrants in the Mediterranean. He said if Libya was supplied with weapons it would be able to end the flow of migrants to Europe.

Haftar claimed that armed groups supported by Turkey and Qatar were entering Libya while his forces do not have enough weapons to face these groups.

He also claimed that ISIS members had infiltrated into Libya from several neighbouring countries, as well as through the seaports along the Libyan coasts.

A militia alliance that controls Libya’s capital has carried out air strikes against positions of the Islamic State jihadist group in the coastal city of Sirte, an official said.

“A Fajr Libya warplane launched several raids against sites where there were members of the Libyan branch of the Islamic State,” an official in the town, who did not want to be named, said.

The targets included an IS command base set up in a conference centre where the late leader Moamer Gathafi once hosted international summits in what was his hometown, the official said.

Fajr Libya is a coalition of militias, including Islamists, which controls Tripoli, where it has installed a government and a parliament opposed to the internationally recognised legislature and cabinet.

Heavy fighting has raged between IS and a Fajr Libya battalion in Sirte, located 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of the capital, since Wednesday evening, according to a spokesman for the militia.

There have been sporadic clashes for about two months between IS and the battalion, tasked by the Tripoli parliament with restoring security in the coastal city.

The internationally recognised government fled to the far east of the country after Fajr Libya seized the capital in August.

The turmoil has allowed IS to gain a foothold in the oil-rich North African state, where the extremist group has executed dozens of Christians.

A militia alliance that controls Libya’s capital has carried out air strikes against ISIS positions in the coastal city of Sirte, an official said.

“A Fajr Libya warplane launched several raids on Thursday evening against sites where there were members of the Libyan branch of the Islamic State,” an official in the town, who did not want to be named, told AFP.

The targets included an ISIS command base set up in a conference center where the late leader Moammar Gadhafi once hosted international summits in what was his hometown, the official said.

Fajr Libya is a coalition of militias, including Islamists, which controls Tripoli, where it has installed a government and a parliament opposed to the internationally recognised legislature and cabinet.

Heavy fighting has raged between ISIS and a Fajr Libya battalion in Sirte, located 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of the capital, since Wednesday evening, according to a spokesman for the militia.

There have been sporadic clashes for about two months between ISIS and the battalion, tasked by the Tripoli parliament with restoring security in the coastal city.

The internationally recognised government fled to the far east of the country after Fajr Libya seized the capital in August.

The turmoil has allowed ISIS to gain a foothold in the oil-rich North African state, where the extremist group has executed dozens of Christians.

The Lebanese Army said it had arrested during raids in north Lebanon eight individuals, including two high-ranking members of a terrorist group suspected of involvement attacks against the Army in recent years.

An Army statement said that the “exceptional raids” in the Akkar towns of Khirbet Daoud and Doueir Adwiyeh targeted suspects accused of assaulting Lebanese soldiers and carrying out terrorist operations in Lebanon.

Speaking to The Daily Star, a senior Army source said that the detainees were suspected to be involved in some of the explosions and attacks against the Army that took place over the past two years.

“Investigation will reveal if they were planning any future explosions,” the source said.

The raids led to the arrest of First Sgt. Abdul-Monem Mahmoud Khaled, a defected sergeant in the Lebanese Army who is accused of serving as a high-ranking member of an unidentified terrorist organization, the statement said.

The Army also arrested an “emir of a terrorist group,” who was identified as Syrian national Abdel- Monhem Zoghbi, also known as Abu Hureira.

The statement did not disclose whether the two men belonged to ISIS or the Nusra Front.

But the senior Army source explained that Khaled, from the village of Doueir Adwiyeh, announced that he had joined ISIS in a video last October, adding that he had abandoned his Army post before the announcement.

Several Army soldiers declared their “defection” to ISIS or the Nusra Front last October. The phenomenon stopped when the Army crushed militants inspired by the groups in Tripoli the same month.

The source said that Abu Hureira was the head of a terrorist group based in Akkar and loyal to ISIS.

Soldiers also arrested Khaled, Kamel and Ghadaf Saaededdine.

The three relatives are wanted on charges of belonging to terrorist organizations, according to a security source. They are related to Atef Saaededdine, a former Lebanese Army soldier who is wanted on charges of terrorism and desertion after he defected to the Nusra Front in July 2014, the same source added.

In a video posted on the Nusra Front’s official YouTube channel a few days after his disappearance, Atef, who hails from the province of Akkar, shows his Lebanese Army identification card and accuses the armed forces of taking orders from Hezbollah and discriminating against Lebanese Sunnis. Kamel and Khaled are Atef’s cousins, according to the source. Ghaddaf is his brother.

Thursday’s raids also led to the arrest of Syrian nationals Ahmad al-Jalakh, Ousama Hussein and Ibrahim Zoghbi, who are also accused of carrying out terrorist operations and assaulting members of the Lebanese Army.

Thursday’s arrests are the latest in the Army’s crackdown on suspected terrorists in north Lebanon.

The campaign was launched after notorious Islamist militant Osama Mansour and radical preacher Khaled Hoblos were targeted by security forces earlier this month.

According to a security source, more than 30 suspected militants have been apprehended in north Lebanon since Mansour and his partner Ahmad al-Nather were killed in an Internal Security Forces operation in Tripoli last Thursday.

Hoblos and his driver, Amir al-Kirdi, were also arrested during the operation. Investigations into Hoblos uncovered dormant terrorist networks in north Lebanon that were to be armed by the radical preacher before his arrest.

Hoblos, a radical preacher accused of heading an anti-Army militia based in the town of Bhannin, had been pursued by security forces for allegedly orchestrating attacks against the Army.

Both Mansour and Nather had been wanted for taking part in clashes against the Army in Tripoli in October 2014 and were suspected of links to jihadi groups in Syria.

Mansour, who was close to Lebanon’s top Islamist fugitive Shadi Mawlawi, was wanted over plotting several attacks against the Army in Tripoli. He also took part in clashes between the neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

Mansour and Mawlawi are believed to have links with the Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Violent clashes between Misrata’s Battalion 166 and fighters belonging to the Islamic State (IS) have continued for the fifth day running.

A spokesman for the Battalion 166, Khaled Abujazia, said that fighting involving heavy artillery was taking place at a number of downtown locations in Qaddafi’s former hometown and that two members of the battalion had been killed and five others wounded as it tried to dislodge the Islamists from positions held by them.

These include the Ouagadougou Hall, centrepiece of Qaddafi’s makeover of Sirte as a base for African Union and other pan-African gatherings, and the University of Sirte. Both are being bombarded by the battalion.

Meanwhile random missiles are reported to have fallen on a military housing area, the offices of Radio Free Sirte, a supplies centre and a local school.

Clashes are also reported taking place on the coastal road west of the town.

The two soldiers killed today have been named as Musa Abushalah and Belgassem Safar.