IMAN Chairman concerned over spiralling violence in Libya
Sonntag, 24 August 2014
Libya airport battle 'has killed at least 97'
AFP
Two weeks of fighting between militias in Libya's capital Tripoli have left 97 people dead, as Egypt and western foreign ministries Sunday urged their citizens to leave amid spiralling violence.
Another 38 people, mostly soldiers, were killed in 24 hours of fighting between the army and Islamists in the eastern city of Benghazi, military and medical officials said on Sunday, a further sign of the chaos plaguing the North African nation.
The Tripoli clashes, the most violent since the overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, started with an assault on the airport by a coalition of groups, mainly Islamists, which has since been backed by fighters from third city Misrata.
The attackers are battling to flush out fellow former rebels from the hill town of Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, who have controlled the airport for the past three years.
The health ministry said on Sunday that the violence had killed 97 people, a toll based on casualty reports from eight public hospitals in the city and its suburbs.
Fighting was still raging, with explosions heard from the city from early morning as militiamen battled around the airport.
Egypt's foreign ministry said a rocket hit a house in Tripoli on Saturday, killing 23 people, including several Egyptians.
"There are 23 people dead after a Grad rocket fell on a house in Tripoli. Some of them are Egyptians, but we don't know how many," ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty told AFP.
The foreign ministry statement said they should seek "safer areas in Libya or head to the Libya-Tunisia border".
There were an estimated 1.5 million Egyptians in Libya before Kadhafi's ouster. About two-thirds left during the war but many returned in 2012.
Also on Sunday, a British embassy convoy was fired on in a suspected attempted carjacking in western Tripoli. There were no casualties, a spokesman for London's mission in Libya said.
"Shots were fired at our vehicles but they managed to drive on and leave the area," Bob Phillipson said.
The violence prompted Berlin and London to join Washington in urging their citizens to leave the country as soon as possible, after the US pulled out its diplomatic staff under air cover on Saturday.
Belgium, Malta, Spain and Turkey previously urged their nationals to leave.
The airport has been closed since July 13 because of the clashes.
Libya's interim government has warned that the fighting between those vying for control of the strategic airport were threatening to tear the country apart.
In second city Benghazi, another 38 people, mostly soldiers, were killed in 24 hours of intense clashes between the army and Islamist groups.
A military source said the fighting erupted on Saturday when Islamist groups launched an assault on the headquarters of a special forces unit near the city centre, causing casualties among forces defending their barracks.
Benghazi's main hospital said the bodies of 28 soldiers had been taken there in the past 24 hours, along with 50 wounded, while Al-Marj hospital, 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the east, spoke of two soldiers dead and 10 wounded.
A spokesman for the self-proclaimed Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, an alliance of Islamic and jihadist militia who have claimed a number of attacks on military bases in the area, said eight of its fighters were killed.
Overnight, special forces commander Wanis Abu Khamada told Al-Ahrar television his troops could still "repel any attack on state institutions".
An AFP correspondent said several families were seen leaving the area of the clashes, as loud explosions were heard on Sunday morning.
Near-daily clashes take place in Benghazi, parts of which have become strongholds for Islamist groups since Kadhafi's overthrow.
Libyan capital under Islamist control after Tripoli airport seized
THE GUARDIAN
Libya has lurched ever closer to fragmentation and civil war this weekend after Islamist-led militias seized the airport in the capital, Tripoli, proclaimed their own government, and presented the world with yet another crisis.
Operation Dawn, a coalition of Islamist and Misrata forces, captured the airport on Saturday in fierce fighting against pro-government militias after a five-week siege that battered parts of the capital.
Television images from the scene showed jubilant, bearded, militias dancing on wrecked airliners, firing machine guns in the air and chanting "Allah O Akbar" ("God is great").
On Sunday, they set airport buildings ablaze, apparently intending to destroy rather than hold the site.
The victory, which secures Islamist control over Tripoli, was a culmination of weeks of fighting triggered by elections in July, lost by Islamist parties.
Rather than accept the elections result Islamist leaders in Libya accused the new parliament of being dominated by supporters of the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and have sought to restore the old national congress.
"The general national congress will hold an emergency meeting in Tripoli to save the country," said Omar Ahmidan, a congress spokesman.
Libya's official parliament, the house of representatives, in the eastern city of Tobruk, denounced the attack as illegal, branding Dawn a "terrorist organisation" and announcing a state of war against the group. The move leaves Libya with two governments, one in Tripoli, and one in the east of the country, each battling for the hearts and minds of the country's myriad militias.
There are few regular forces for the government to call upon. The prime minister, Abdullah al-Thani, needs to persuade nationalist and tribal militias to try to recapture the capital. Dawn militias are consolidating their hold on the capital by rounding up government sympathisers and people from Zintan, whose militia defended the airport.
"Units from Gharyan and Abu Salem are circling the area looking for any Zintani they can find," said one frightened resident hiding at an address in the city.
Fighting is continuing to the west of Tripoli, while Islamist brigades in Benghazi, 400 miles east, are battling with army units and nationalist militias of the former general Khalifa Hiftar.
The weekend's developments threaten to tilt the country across the line from troubled post-Arab spring democracy to outright failed state.
Egypt and Sudan are known to be watching developments closely, and last week the French president, François Hollande, said that despite the crises in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and Gaza, his "biggest concern at the moment is Libya".
Some officials in neighbouring countries fear militants could use planes at the three airports Dawn now controls for terror attacks on surrounding nations.
Those fears were heightened after Dawn officials vowed retaliation against Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, whom they blame for air strikes by unidentified jets, Saturday morning, which killed 17 Misrata militias.
"The Emirates and Egypt are involved in this cowardly aggression, we reserve the right to respond at the opportune moment," said Ahmed Hadia, a spokesman for Dawn.
Reports from Italy say Rome is working with the US, France and other nearby states to launch precautionary exercises. Algeria has deployed air defence missiles on its border while Egypt and Tunisia have banned flights from west Libya airports.
The security situation has become so parlous in Libya that the nation has been forced to withdraw as host for the African Cup of Nations in 2017.
Libyan officials have arrived in Egypt before a summit in Cairo on Monday at which they are expected to appeal for military support. Libya's foreign minister, Mohamed Abdul Aziz, launched a similar appeal at the UN in July, but found no support, with diplomats wary about new foreign intervention.
Dawn leaders insist they are not extremists, characterising themselves as patriots ensuring that the gains of the 2011 revolution are not lost.
Many Libyans think fragmentation is now inevitable, with Islamist-led forces strong in Tripoli, and tribal and nationalists dominant in the east of the country.
"It's gone into complete madness," said Hassan el Amin, a Libyan politician who fled to Britain after receiving death threats from Misrata militias. "There's another battle coming up, between east and west."
The key to victory could be as much economic as military. Libya's government might have lost control of the capital but for the moment it has international recognition, ensuring access to the country's rich oil reserves and foreign assets, worth an estimated £80bn.
French diplomats say that in the present power struggle involving rival armed factions, the UN security council should take a leading role to forge a political solution and prevent the country from splitting apart.
France sent two frigates to Tripoli to evacuate the remaining French nationals from Libya on 29 July. Forty-seven French nationals and a number of Britons were evacuated secretly in the night-time operation.
But experts say military intervention in Libya, at this time either by France or within a Nato coalition, looks unlikely.
Camille Grand, director of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, said: "Nato's got its hands busy with Ukraine. And in France, everyone's looking at Iraq, Syria and the Sahel.
"Who would be the driving force? And what would be the trigger now that French nationals have been evacuated? There aren't any volunteers to get involved in a quagmire that looks like Somalia now."
Responding to the news, IMAN Chairman, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I am very concerned to hear of these reports; it is clear that the situation in Libya is deteriorating rapidly because of the Islamists and urgent action must be taken by the international community to rid the whole region of them.
It is especially concerning to hear that Tripoli airport is now under islamist control, this is a grave and dangerous development.
Unfortunately is appears that Islamist factions are a growing presence in the country and responsible for most of the unrest. The people of Libya did not overthrow one tyrant in the Arab Spring only for an oppressive theocracy to take hold.
The international community must help to foster an open, free and accountable democracy in the country. It must also rid Libya of armed militias, only the government should be supported with arms - we cannot allow war lords to turn places into no-go areas.
Only then will the country see a lasting peace.
Let us hope that swift action is taken to bring these Islamists to justice - the international community must help to rid them from both the country and the region."
