7/22/2014
TRIPOLI – Forty-seven people have been killed, most of them civilians, and 120 others wounded in a week of fighting between two Libyan militia groups seeking to control Tripoli’s International Airport, the Health ministry reported Monday.
Most of the dead were residents of Qasr Ben Ghashir neighborhood near the airport, who died when their homes were hit in the crossfire, and only two of the fatal victims were insurgents, the ministry said on its website.
Tripoli International Airport has been closed since last week, when fighting broke out between Islamic militias from Misrata, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Tripoli, and Zintan, 170 kilometers (106 miles) west of Tripoli, which took over the facilities after the ouster of long-time strongman colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
The battle over the airport raised concern among the international community and led the UN to withdraw its mission in Libya, while some countries like the Philippines evacuated 13,000 of its citizens from the country.
In Manila, the Filipino Foreign Ministry on Monday reported that one of its nationals was decapitated in Libya on July 15 after he was abducted by militias along with a Pakistani and a Libyan in the northeastern city of Benghazi.
The Libyan transitional authorities have failed to dismantle or disarm the rebel groups that operate in the country, three years after the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011.
TRIPOLI – Forty-seven people have been killed, most of them civilians, and 120 others wounded in a week of fighting between two Libyan militia groups seeking to control Tripoli’s International Airport, the Health ministry reported Monday.Most of the dead were residents of Qasr Ben Ghashir neighborhood near the airport, who died when their homes were hit in the crossfire, and only two of the fatal victims were insurgents, the ministry said on its website.
Tripoli International Airport has been closed since last week, when fighting broke out between Islamic militias from Misrata, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Tripoli, and Zintan, 170 kilometers (106 miles) west of Tripoli, which took over the facilities after the ouster of long-time strongman colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
The battle over the airport raised concern among the international community and led the UN to withdraw its mission in Libya, while some countries like the Philippines evacuated 13,000 of its citizens from the country.
In Manila, the Filipino Foreign Ministry on Monday reported that one of its nationals was decapitated in Libya on July 15 after he was abducted by militias along with a Pakistani and a Libyan in the northeastern city of Benghazi.
The Libyan transitional authorities have failed to dismantle or disarm the rebel groups that operate in the country, three years after the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011.
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