Renewed fighting in Libya, where both sides rely on drone support from foreign backers, has fueled a battle for air supremacy that augurs further escalation despite the coronavirus outbreak in the country. It also raises the prospect of Turkey sending more military aid to its allies.

Despite cease-fire efforts and an arms embargo, fighting in Libya has flared up since the second week of March, when the forces of rebel commander Khalifa Hifter launched a fresh push toward Tripoli, reinforced with fresh arms supplies from their allies — the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In early March, Hifter’s forces had already tightened their siege of the capital from the south and their siege of Misrata from the southeast.

On March 25, the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) launched a counter-offensive, dubbed Operation Peace Storm, to repulse Hifter’s forces, drawing on Turkish military support. Turkey employed the tactics it used — and apparently deemed successful — in the five-day showdown in Syria’s Idlib in late February and early March, namely an armed drone surge targeting high-profile command centers and critical enemy weapons, coupled with artillery and rocket fire support.

The UN-recognized GNA said Operation Peace Storm was launched because Hifter’s forces had continued rocket and drone attacks on civilians in the Tripoli area despite a humanitarian truce over the coronavirus outbreak. It said Hifter’s troops attacked the prison in Ain Zara, south of Tripoli, wounding three officers March 24. In the five days from March 20, six civilians were killed in rocket attacks in the same area, it said.