CAIRO: Clashes between two heavily armed militia groups in Libya's capital terrorized residents and killed about a dozen people, the latest violence in the largely lawless North African nation, officials said Saturday.
The hours-long clashes, which involved heavy weapons, took place on Friday in Tripoli's eastern neighborhood of Tajoura between the Rahba Al-Duruae militia, led by warlord Bashir Khalfallah – known as Al-Baqrah – and another militia Al-Shahida Sabriya, officials added .
The Health Ministry's Ambulance and Rescue Service said at least nine people were killed and 16 others injured in the hours-long clashes.
The clashes stemmed from an assassination attempt on Al-Baqrah on Friday, which his militia blamed on Al-Shahida Sabriya, according to local media.
Khaled Al-Meshry, the newly elected head of the western-based Supreme Council of State, condemned the assassination attempt and called for an investigation to hold those responsible to account.
The warring parties are allied with the government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. Its spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The UN mission in Libya on Saturday deplored the clashes, the use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas and the military build-up in and around the capital.
“These clashes serve as a reminder of the critical need to unify the military and security apparatus, establish legitimate and accountable institutions,” it said in a statement. “They also underline the urgent need to speed up an inclusive political process leading to credible elections.”
The violence underscored the fragility of war-torn Libya following the 2011 uprising-turned-civil war that toppled and later killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Amid the chaos, the militias grew in wealth and power, especially in Tripoli and the western part of the country.
Libya has been divided for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. It is currently governed by the Dbeibah government in Tripoli and by Prime Minister Ossama Hammad's administration in the east.
Western Libya is controlled by a range of lawless militias allied with Dbeibah's government, while forces of powerful military commander Khalifa Haftar control the country's east and south.
Friday's militia fighting was the latest in a series of clashes between militias vying for influence in the country's west.
In May, militia clashes rocked the coastal town of Zawiya and trapped families inside their homes, killing at least one person and injuring 22 others. And last August, a 24-hour period of fighting between rival militias in Tripoli killed at least 45 people.
The capital's clashes came as Haftar's forces said they were deploying troops to the southwestern areas to secure Libya's southern borders. The deployment prompted militias in western Libya to mobilize amid growing fears of a potential new war between eastern and western Libya.
The UN mission and Western embassies in Libya expressed concern that the military movement could explode into an all-out war between Haftar's forces and Western-based militias, four years after a ceasefire agreement ended a 14-month war between the two sides.
“Such moves risk escalation and violent confrontation and could jeopardize the 2020 ceasefire,” said a joint statement from the embassies of France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States.
