Over 120 killed, 600 wounded in Libya fighting, says UN agency
TRIPOLI: Fighting near Tripoli has killed 121 people and wounded 561 since strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive earlier this month to take the Libyan capital, the World Health Organisation said on Sunday.
WHO’S Libya account said on Twitter the organisation was sending medical supplies and more staff to Tripoli, and denounced “repeated attacks on health care workers, vehicles” during the fighting which erupted on April 4. Haftar’s forces, which control swathes of the country’s east, have defied international calls to halt their battle against fighters loyal to the Un-backed Government of National Accord based in Tripoli.
The United Nations’ office for humanitarian affairs said more than 13,500 people had been displaced by the clashes, while more than 900 residents are living in shelters.
FIGHTER JET OF HAFTAR FORCES GOES DOWN
Libya’s Un-backed government said its forces shot down a fighter jet belonging to forces of Khalifa Haftar south of the capital Tripoli on Sunday. A source for Haftar’s Libyan National Army confirmed the loss of a MIG-23 aircraft but attributed it to a “technical failure”. The source said the pilot had ejected with his parachute and was “safe and sound”.