LNA forces under Hifter conducted an airstrike against the GNA-held Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli, Libya's last functioning civilian airport, on 8 April. The closure left Misrata Airport, located 200 km (125 miles) to the east down the coast, as the nearest airport for Tripoli residents. UN special representative for Libya Ghassan Salamé condemned the attack as "a serious violation of international humanitarian law." Wolfram Lacher, a scholar of Libya at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said that the strike showed Hifter's willingness "to reduce Tripoli to rubble so that he can rule Libya, which is the only option he has left now anyway." Flights were temporarily suspended; by 9 April, a coalition of local and regional militias and GNA forces had pushed Hifter's forces from the airport, and flights resumed, with clashes continuing in multiple locations on the southern fringes of Tripoli. On 8 April, the LGA said 19 of its soldiers died in recent days in the fighting in and around Tripoli, while a spokesman for the GNA's said that "fighting in the south of the capital had killed at least 25 people, including fighters and civilians, and wounded 80."
