47 killed in clashes over Tripoli airport

More than 47 people have been killed and 120 injured during clashes between rival militias to control Tripoli International Airport, Libya’s Health Ministry announced yesterday.

A ministry spokesman told AFP that the death toll does not include victims who were killed in clashes on yesterday, which is believed to be the most violent day since the outbreak of fighting. The figures also do not include cases that have been evacuated to field hospitals and were not documented in hospital records.

According to a local official, the battles that took place yesterday left at least five civilians dead.

Mohamed Abdel Rahman said the victims were killed after a rocket fell on their homes in the district of Qasr Bin Ghashir near the airport.

Tripoli International Airport has been closed since July 13 following attacks by Islamist militias from the city of Misrata, 200 kilometres east of Tripoli.

The militias try to force the Zintan Brigades, 170 kilometres southwest of Tripoli, to leave the airport which fell under their control in 2011 along with other military and civilian sites in the south of the capital.

Gilani Aldahish, a security official at the airport told AFP: “The airport suffered on Sunday morning from a mortar attack, missiles and artillery tanks.”