Libya: One killed, several wounded during clashes in Tripoli

One fighter was killed and several wounded as fighting between rival militias escalated in Tripoli this week. 

Heavy clashes outside security force headquarters in the Libyan capital on Thursday and Friday were reported by several local media sources. 

The gunfights have increased fears among local residents that the impasse between forces loyal to rival prime ministers Abdulhamid Dbeibah and Fathi Bashagha is going to spark a return to further conflict in Libya. 

Before the clashes, embattled GNA leader Dbeibah had attempted to reassure his cabinet that more fighting is not on the horizon. 

“We can't be part of new war among Libyans. No more wars. We need to sit down and discuss a consensual constitutional basis that leads to real elections this time.” Dbeibah said on Wednesday.

His comments followed allegations by Agila Saleh, speaker of the Sirte-based House of Representatives,that “Tripoli is under the control of armed groups” and that entry to the capital can only be gained by force. 

Elsewhere in Libya, random gunfire and shelling injured five young children in Benghazi, according to the Benghazi medical centre.

The children were between three and five years old, and sustained bullets and shrapnel wounds to their heads, said a statement from the hospital. 

Months of stalemate between rival administrations, neither of which are prepared to cede power to the other, risks plunging Libya back into prolonged fighting after two years of comparative peace, or returning it to territorial partition.

Libya has had little security since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi. In 2014, the country was split between rival eastern and western factions before a 2020 truce that brought it under a fragile unity government.