War in Libya: how did it start, who is involved and what happens next?

Foreign states are increasingly active in this new chapter of the long-running conflict

Forces allied to Libya's UN-backed prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, have seized a key airbase from the renegade general Khalifa Haftar, dealing a huge strategic blow to the warlord's year-long campaign to capture the capital, Tripoli.

Haftar launched a new assault to unseat the UN-recognised government in April 2019, triggering some of the most significant fighting on Libyan soil since the battle to unseat Col Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.