Clashes with artillery and rockets spread on Thursday into two Tripoli districts, where rival militia brigades were battling over the airport in Libya's worst fighting since the 2011 revolt that ousted Muammar Qadhafi. Nearly 200 people have been killed since the violence erupted two weeks ago in Tripoli and also in the eastern city of Benghazi, where a coalition of Islamist militants and former rebels has overrun a major army base in the city.
Three years after the fall of Qadhafi, Libya's fragile government and nascent army have failed to impose authority on heavily armed brigades of former rebels who have become the North African country's powerbrokers. Fighting over two weeks has driven most Western diplomats out of the Libyan capital, increasing international worries that the Opec oil producer is sliding toward becoming a failed state just across the Mediterranean from mainland Europe.
Thuds of artillery, rockets and anti-aircraft cannons echoed across Tripoli from early Thursday morning, a day after a temporary cease-fire agreed by factions to allow fire-fighters to put out a huge blaze at a fuel depot hit by a rocket. Western governments hope the warring factions can reach some political agreement within the newly elected parliament that is due to hold its first session on Saturday in Tobruk, two parliamentary sources said. Once allies in the Nato-backed war against Qadhafi, the Misrata and Zintan brigades have feuded in the past over control of parts of Tripoli since the fall of the capital. But the recent fighting is the worst in three years.
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