Libya Violence Ramps up as Clashes Kill Dozens

Local Editor

At least 36 people were killed in Benghazi, many of them civilian, where Libyan special forces and militants clashed Saturday night and Sunday morning, as Egypt and western foreign ministries urged their citizens to leave amid spiraling violence.

The government said more than 150 people have died in the capital Tripoli and Benghazi in two weeks of fighting.

In Tripoli, 23 people, all Egyptian workers, were killed when a rocket hit their home Saturday during fighting between rival militias battling over the city's main airport, the Egyptian state news agency reported.

Since the clashes erupted two weeks ago, 94 people have died in the capital, and more than 400 have been injured as militias exchanged rocket and artillery fire across southern Tripoli, the Health Ministry said.

Another 55 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Benghazi since the clashes have intensified over the last week between regular forces and Islamist militants who are entrenched in the city.
"Most of the victims we have noticed are civilians as the fighters have their own hospitals on the battlefield," a Benghazi medical source told Reuters.
In the last two weeks, Libya has descended into its deadliest violence since the 2011 war that ousted Moamar Gadhafi, with the central government unable to impose order.
The United States, the United Nations and Turkey have pulled their diplomats out of the North African country.

The United States evacuated its embassy Saturday, driving diplomats across the border into Tunisia under heavy military protection because of Tripoli clashes near the embassy compound.

A British Embassy convoy was hit by gunfire during an attempted hijacking outside the capital Tripoli on the way to the Tunisian border, but no one was injured in the incident, an embassy official said Sunday."It was an attempted hijack as the convoy was on its way to the Tunisian border," the official said. "No one was injured but vehicles were damaged."
The violence prompted Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam to urge their citizens to leave as soon as possible.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry instructed nationals to leave Tripoli and Benghazi and seek "safer areas in Libya or head to the Libya- Tunisia border."
Belgium, Malta, Spain and Turkey previously urged their nationals to leave.
Shelling continued Sunday in Tripoli around the airport that is controlled by militias from the western city of Zintan. More Islamist-leaning rival brigades are trying to force them from the airport, which Zintanis have controlled since the fall of Tripoli.

The airport has been closed since July 13 because of the clashes.

Clashes were far heavier in Benghazi overnight, where regular army and air force units have joined with a renegade ex-army general who has launched a self-declared campaign to oust Islamist militants from the city.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team