Military forces affiliated with Major General Osama Juweili set up dirt berms and closed roads in Al-Aziziyah area (40 km south of Tripoli) late Saturday night and prevented citizens from crossing the road in both directions from and to Tripoli before partially opening the road at a later time and allowing people to move around.
Although Juweili's forces did not announce the reasons behind this act, sources confirmed to The Libya Observer that the military buildup and road closures had nothing to do with the intention to launch a new war, but rather a show of force to prevent forces affiliated with the Government of National Unity from securing the road in preparation for the crossing of the convoy of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who intends to visit Ghadames city in the far west of the country.
The sources added that it was agreed to remove all the berms and open the road to "defuse the crisis", saying that Dbeibah would move to Ghadames by plane.
The forces loyal to Dbeibah removed their military vehicles from their camps in the areas south of Tripoli, in what was seen as a response to the mobilization and closure of the roads by Juweili's forces.
Juweili - who is the former commander of the western military region and the commander of the joint operations room during the period of Haftar's aggression on Tripoli - had declared his allegiance to the government appointed by the House of Representatives, accusing Prime Minister Dbeibah of clinging to power and misusing it. His forces also participated in the clashes that took place in Tripoli last summer, which ended with the defeat of the forces loyal to Fathi Bashagha at the time, and granting them a safe passage to withdraw to the camp of the Fourth Brigade in Al-Aziziyah.
