CLASHES BETWEEN RIVAL FACTIONS IN LIBYA KILL 27

battles between two leading armed groups in the Libyan capital Tripoli have killed 27 people and wounded 106, a toll update from the Emergency Medicine Center said Wednesday.

The center, which provides emergency services in the west of Tripoli, published the “provisional” toll on its Facebook page overnight.

The clashes between the influential 444 Brigade and the Al-Radaa, or Special Deterrence Force, two of the myriad of militias that have vied for power since the overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, erupted on Monday night and raged through Tuesday.

A total of 234 families were evacuated from frontline areas in the capital’s southern suburbs, along with dozens of doctors and nurses who had got trapped by the fighting while caring for the wounded, the center said.

Trigger event

The clashes were triggered by the detention of the head of the 444 Brigade, Col. Mahmud Hamza, by the rival

Al-Radaa Force on Monday, an interior ministry official said.

Late Tuesday, the social council in the southeastern suburb of Soug el-Joumaa, a stronghold of the Al-Radaa force, announced an agreement had been reached with Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah, head of the UN-recognized government based in the capital, for Hamza to be handed over to a “neutral party.”

In a televised announcement, the council said a ceasefire would follow the transfer of the force’s commander and late Tuesday the fighting abated.

Shifting alliances

Both armed groups are aligned with Dbeibah’s government, one of two rival administrations that vie for power through shifting alliances with the militias on the ground.

In May, the two sides had clashed for hours in Tripoli, also after the arrest of a 444 Brigade member.

Libya has seen more than a decade of stop-start conflict since the Nato-backed revolt that toppled Kadhafi.