UN chief calls for calm in Libya
Guterres ’deeply concerned’ after clashes at air base leave 141 dead said 103 of those killed in the attack at the air base were LNA troops, most of them from the 12th Brigade stationed there.
They were attacked by a brigade from the western city of Misrata known as the Third Force, which previously controlled the base and is nominally aligned with the UNbacked Government of National Accord in Tripoli.
Earlier on Friday, the mayor of Brak al-Shati and a medical source in the town put the death toll at 89, though the medicalofficialsaidsomebodies had not been brought to the hospital. Mismari said some of the bodies were only collected on Friday.
It was not possible to independently verify the number of casualties. Local and LNA officials have said some of those killed were civilians who appeared to have been summarily executed.
Mohamed Gliwan, a spokesman for the Third Force, told local TV that LNA troops who were killed inside the base were armed.
GNA Prime Minister Fayez Seraj announced that he was suspending both Defence Minister Mahdi al-Barghathi and Third Force commander Jamal Traiki, “until it is determined who was responsible for violating the ceasefire”.
He condemned the escalation at Brak al-Shati “in the strongest terms” and called for an immediate cease-fire.
The LNA has said Islamist militants and the Benghazi Defence Brigades, whose members previously fought the LNA in Benghazi, also took part in the attack.
Mismari said the LNA had carried out airstrikes in the Sabha and Jufra regions response to the attack.
Also on Friday, a car bomb south of Benghazi killed a prominent tribal leader linked to the LNA along with five other people. The blast in Suluq, 50 kilometers south of Benghazi, also wounded 26 people, a medical source said.
The LNA has been fighting a three-year campaign against Islamist militants and other opponents in Benghazi and other parts of eastern Libya. in