Tripoli clashes kill at least 20 and shuts down the city’s international airport
Twenty people were killed and 60 wounded when clashes broke out in Tripoli during what the government said was a failed attempt to free militants from a nearby prison.
The Libyan capital’s airport was shut and planes damaged on Monday during the heaviest fighting in the city for months.
The clashes undercut claims by the internationally recognised Government of National Accord that it had largely stabilised Tripoli.
They also undermined its efforts to persuade foreign embassies to return there.
The government said the attack had “endangered the lives of passengers, affected aviation safety and terrorised residents”.
“This assault was aimed at freeing terrorists from Daesh, Al Qaeda and other organisations,” it said.
The sound of automatic gunfire and artillery rounds were heard in the city centre early in the day and authorities at Mitiga Airport, which operates all civilian air traffic to and from the capital, said flights had been suspended until further notice. By late afternoon the airport was empty and clashes had largely died down, although pilots flew several aircraft across the city to Tripoli International Airport, which has been closed to commercial flights since 2014, to try and protect them.
One Airbus A319 operated by Afriqiyah Airways was reportedly in a hangar at Mitiga with a hole in its roof from artillery fire. At least four other aircraft suffered damage from gunfire, including two jets operated by Libyan Wings and two Buraq Air Boeing 737s.
The fighting pitted the Special Deterrence Force, one of Tripoli’s most powerful armed groups, against a rival faction based in the city’s Tajoura
The airport was attacked by men loyal to a militia leader known as Bashir ‘The Cow,’ the Special Deterrence Force said
neighbourhood. The force fights crime and terrorist acts, and controls Mitiga Airport and a large prison next to it.
It is aligned with the government and is occasionally targeted by rivals whose members it has arrested.
It said the airport had been attacked by men loyal to a militia leader known as Bashir “The Cow” and others it had been seeking to arrest. The attack had been repelled, and an operation to secure the area was continuing, the force said.