Death toll from Tripoli fighting rises to 392: WHO

By Walid Abdullah

TRIPOLI (AA) - The death toll from weeks of fighting near Libyan capital Tripoli has risen to 392 with hundreds more injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“At least 392 people have been killed as of May 2, while some 2,000 others have been injured,” the WHO said in a Monday statement.

Another 50,000 people have left the capital as a result of the ongoing violence, it added.

Since early April, Khalifa Haftar, who commands forces loyal to a government based in eastern Libya, has been leading a campaign to capture Tripoli, where Libya’s UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) is headquartered.

Although Haftar has so far failed to wrest the capital from pro-GNA forces, sporadic fighting on the city’s outskirts has left numerous casualties on both sides.

Libya has remained beset by turmoil since long-serving leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed in a bloody NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

Since then, the country has seen the emergence of two rival seats of power: one in eastern Libya, with which Haftar is affiliated, and another in Tripoli, which enjoys UN recognition.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat