56 killed in weeklong Libya clashes: UN health agency

By Walid Abdullah

TRIPOLI (AA) – Clashes near Libyan capital Tripoli have left 58 people dead and scores more injured since they began late last week, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In a Thursday tweet, the WHO put the total number of casualties at 58 dead (including six civilians) and 275 injured (including nine civilians).

Among those killed, the health agency said, were two doctors and an ambulance driver.

The WHO is currently “rushing medical aid to the wounded [and] sending supplies and medical teams to hospitals receiving casualties”, the agency tweeted.

Last Thursday, military commander Khalifa Haftar, who is affiliated with a government based in the country’s east, launched a campaign to capture Tripoli, where Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) is headquartered.

For the past six days, Haftar’s forces have continued to trade blows with pro-GNA forces on the capital’s outskirts.

Libya has remained beset by turmoil since 2011, when a bloody NATO-backed uprising led to the ouster and death of President Muammar Gaddafi after four decades in power.

Since then, the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of power: one in eastern Libya, with which Haftar is associated, and another in Tripoli, where it enjoys UN's support.