Heavy fighting breaks out in Libyan capital

The prime minister of Libya’s Government of National Accord Fayez Al Serraj, centre, listend to Gen Thomas Waldhauser, the top US military commander overseeing troops in Africa, speak during a news coShow more

Fighting broke out on Friday across the Libyan capital, Tripoli, with rival militias exchanging artillery and small arms fire.

Residents reported shells and rockets raining down, with tanks on the streets and the city’s Al Khadra hospital, in the firing line, having to be evacuated. The chaos has meant hospitals have no reliable casualty figures.

The offensive was launched by militias supporting a former prime minister, Khalifa Ghweil, a rival to Tripoli’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA).

Explosions and rocket fire rumbled through the Abu Slim, Al Hadhba and Salaheddin districts in the south of the city as militias fought for the luxury Rixos hotel. Until March the Rixos and nearby villas were the headquarters for Mr Ghweil’s Salvation Government, a rival to the GNA.

The United Nations special representative for Libya Martin Kobler said he was watching the Tripoli fighting with “grave concern” and issued an appeal for calm. “Political aims must not be pursued through violence,” he said. “I remind all parties of their duty to respect the provisions of international humanitarian and international human rights law.”

Residents reported random shells and rockets landing on homes, while thick black smoke rose from the Rixos complex.

Mr Ghweil was ousted from power when the GNA took office in March last year but attempted a coup last November, setting up headquarters at the Rixos.

In March, militias backing the GNA captured the Rixos complex, but conflict between militias backing the rival governments has simmered ever since.

It is not clear what role the arrest, by pro-GNA forces, of Ramadan Abedi and Hashem Abedi, father and son of Manchester bomber Salman, played in the current violence. Both men were detained on Tuesday.

The battle in Tripoli comes with further fighting elsewhere in the country, between pro-GNA militias and the Libyan National Army (LNA) commanded by Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar and loyal to a third rival government, the House of Representatives in Tobruk.

Earlier this month militias killed 141 LNA soldiers, many of them cadets, after capturing the southern airbase of Brak Al Shati, in what the army says was a massacre. Human rights groups say they have evidence of executions and the killings have set back hopes of a peace accord following meetings between Field Marshall Haftar and GNA prime minister Fayez Al Serraj earlier this month. The GNA insists it did not command units responsible for the attack and has promised an investigation.

On Wednesday LNA units, who already control much of eastern Libya and the so called Oil Crescent, home to most of the country’s crude production, strengthened their position in southern Libya, consolidating their hold on Brak Al Shati and capturing a second airbase, Tamenhint.