Video footage of a US vessel leaving the Libyan coast near Tripoli has surfaced, indicating growing security concerns as eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar leads his troops in an advance on the city.

The craft appears to be an LCAC hovercraft, used by the US Navy and Marine Corps to transport troops, vehicles and cargo from ship to shore. Footage published by video news agency Ruptly on Monday shows the craft making a hasty exit from port at Janzur, 10km west of Tripoli.

The video emerged as the US temporarily withdrew some of its forces from Libya due to the “increasingly complex and unpredictable” security situation, according to Marine Corps General Thomas Waldhauser, head of US Africa Command.

At present, there are two competing governments in Libya, the UN-recognized one in Tripoli and another in the eastern city of Tobruk, under the control of military commander Khalifa Haftar. Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) forces have been advancing on Tripoli for several days, vowing to eliminate “terrorists and extremists” there. They have reportedly seized some areas around the capital, but have not yet launched an all-out assault on the city center.

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