Heavy Clashes Among Militias in Libya’s Tripoli

Locals Report Heaviest Fighting in Past Two Years

Heavy fighting has been reported in the Libyan capital city of Tripoli over the past two days, with a pair of competing militias engaged in what locals are reporting were the worst round of fighting the city has seen in the past two years, since the time the now Tobruk-based parliament fled the city.

The fighting this time centered in the southeast, with the UN claiming to have brokered a ceasefire agreement, but which doesn’t appear to be doing anything, with locals saying they believed for months that such fighting was going to explode at any moment, as it ultimately did.

Armored vehicles and trucks with guns mounted on them are reported in the area, with snipers and fighters with rocket launchers on rooftops, as the militias linked to two of the many rival factions that all see themselves as the real government of Libya.

The UN expressed serious concern about the new fighting and urged a return to calm in the city, which is the home of two different governments, the Tripoli parliament and the “unity government,” the later of which is backed by the UN.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.