Libya's internationally recognised government has launched air strikes against forces loyal to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar after his forces announced they were pulling back from Tripoli front lines.

Air strikes by the Government of National Accord (GNA) targeted several locations in the west of the country, including in the Haftar stronghold of Tarhouna near the capital, Tripoli, according to GNA army spokesperson Colonel Mohamed Qanunu.

Last month, the GNA took a string of small towns linking Tripoli to the Tunisian border.

Last month, GNA Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha said capturing Tarhouna would end Haftar's campaign to seize Tripoli, but that the fighting in the capital was the priority.

An LNA military source told Reuters news agency that in Tripoli the LNA had completed a gradual withdrawal from the Salahedin battlefront, one of the main theatres of fighting in the capital.