5 civilians killed by shelling in Tripoli

CAIRO — At least five civilians were killed, including two members of a family, by heavy shelling in Libya’s capital of Tripoli on Monday, officials in the U.N.-backed government said, despite increased international pressure to halt fighting over coronavirus concerns.

Mortar shells launched by Libya’s eastern-based forces struck houses in Tripoli’s southern suburbs, killing a 42-yearold woman and her nephew, said Amin al-Hashemi, a health ministry spokesman.

In another mortar barrage near the Mitiga airport in Tripoli, two migrant workers were killed and a Libyan civilian was wounded, the health ministry said. A 20-year-old woman was also killed when errant shells crashed into her house in Tripoli’s Tajoura neighborhood.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Khalifa Hifter, a military commander whose forces control much of the country and have been laying siege to the capital for almost a year, accused the Tripoli-based adversaries of firing Grad rockets on the town of Tarhuna on Monday.

The attacks came just days after the warring parties expressed commitment to a humanitarian pause in fighting so authorities could focus on preventing the spread of the new coronavirus. Libya has not confirmed any cases of the virus, but public health officials fear the global pandemic could devastate the war-torn country. The conflict has ravaged key infrastructure and created dire shortages of medical supplies.