At least 115 people have been killed and 383 injured in month-long clashes between rival factions in Tripoli, Libya's health ministry said on Sunday. The fighting pitted the Seventh Brigade, or Kaniyat, from Tarhouna, a town 65 km (45 miles) southeast of Tripoli, against the Tripoli Revolutionaries' Brigades (TRB) and the Nawasi, two of the capital's largest armed groups.
Tripoli and western Libya are run by a UN-backed government mainly supported by armed groups, while Eastern Libya is controlled by a rival administration. The country has been riven since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011. The Kaniyat and other groups from outside Tripoli launched an assault on the capital in late August amid unease over reports of the wealth, power and extravagant lifestyles of some Tripoli militia commanders.
At the Frontline in Tripoli's southern residential areas of Wadi Rabea and Fatma Zahra, shelled houses, torched vehicles, destroyed shops and deserted streets attest to the intensity of the clashes. "The death toll could surge because of the critical condition of the injured and the continuing fighting," Wedad Abo Al-Niran, media officer at the health ministry told Reuters.
The armed groups which claim official status through the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli patrol the area in armoured vehicles and pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns. The fighting has knocked out most power stations in the city and crippled Tripoli's main airport.