Members of the Tripoli Rebels Brigade militia set up a checkpoint on a main road in Tajura, 15km from the capital Tripoli, after foiling attempts by Misrata-based militiamen to advance into the city yesterday.
TRIPOLI: Fresh clashes erupted in Tripoli yesterday as the death toll from a shoot-out at an anti-militia protest rose to 43 and the weak, post-revolutionary government appealed for restraint.
More than 450 people were wounded when Friday’s protest sparked clashes in the capital between militias that continued through the night, Justice Minister Salah Al Marghani said.
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan appealed for “restraint and a halt to the clashes,” warning that the entry of more armed groups into the volatile city could only “further complicate the situation.”
“The coming hours and days will be decisive for the history of Libya,” stressed Zeidan, who was himself briefly abducted by militiamen last month in an incident that underscored the country’s mounting instability.
The latest violence erupted when protesters carrying white flags marched on a cluster of villas that serve as the Tripoli base of the Misrata brigade — made up of battle-hardened fighters from the western city of the same name — and demanded they leave the capital.
Gunmen opened fire from inside the villas, killing several protesters and prompting rival militias to attack the base, setting part of it ablaze and briefly expelling the Misrata fighters.
The coastal city of Misrata, 200 kilometres west of Tripoli, saw some of the 2011 uprising’s fiercest fighting. Its rebel brigades advanced to Tripoli as Gaddafi’s regime crumbled.
Reinforcements entered the capital overnight from the militia’s headquarters in Misrata and retook the base in Gharghour as explosions and gunfire echoed across the city.
The Misrata brigade attacked an army barracks early yesterday, setting off clashes in which one person was killed and eight wounded, according to Colonel Mosbah Al Harna, commander of another former rebel brigade nominally under the authority of the defence ministry.
Harna said the Misrata militiamen then looted the base, taking away vehicles, weapons and ammunition.
More fighters from Misrata tried to enter Tripoli from the east, sparking clashes with rival militias before the reinforcements pulled back several kilometres.
Military police restricted access to the Gharghour district yesterday. The road into Tripoli from the east was also closed off, a journalist said, and the city was quiet last evening, with many businesses and shops closed.
The UN mission in Tripoli condemned the violence, urging Libyans to use “peaceful means to resolve their differences”.
AFP
