Fighting in Libya's capital has
spread beyond the airport:
Officially Libya is not at war, but for the thousands of residents of
the capital, Tripoli, who fled their homes at the weekend it is starting
to feel like it. Fighting spilled across Tripoli's western districts
after a battle between rival militias on July 19th and 20th for control
of Libya’s main airport left 47 dead, marking it as the most violent day
since the end of the 2011 revolution that toppled Muammar Qaddafi.
Militias from Misrata, frustrated at their failure to capture the
airport after a week of fighting with the Zintan militia that holds it,
arrived with tanks to pound the perimeter. The Zintanis responded with
shells and anti-aircraft fire. As the violence expanded, huge fires
burned in the city's western districts. “A shell hit my neighbour’s
house and a lot of people left,” says Seraj, a resident of the western
suburb of Janzour. “We stayed inside, it was not safe on the streets...”
Without command of any troops willing and able to intervene, Libya's
foreign minister, Muhammad Abdul Aziz, on July 17th asked the UN
Security Council to send military advisers to bolster state forces
guarding ports, airports and other strategic locations. He warned that
Libya risks going “out of control” without such help. But he found no
takers.
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