TRIPOLI - Gun battles between two leading armed groups in the Libyan capital Tripoli have killed 27 people and wounded 106, med­ics said Wednesday, as a tentative truce took hold. Three field hospitals and a fleet of around 60 ambulances had been deployed to the area after the fight­ing broke out. The clashes were triggered by the deten­tion of the head of the 444 Brigade, Colonel Mahmud Hamza, by the rival Al-Radaa Force on Monday, an interior ministry official said. In a televised an­nouncement, the coun­cil said a ceasefire would follow the trans­fer of the force’s com­mander and late Tues­day the fighting abated. Overnight, Dbeibah visited the southeast­ern suburb of Ain Zara, which saw some of the heaviest fighting on Tuesday, accompanied by Interior Minister Imed Trabelsi.

Libyan clashes: According to the spokesperson of Tripoli’s Emergency Medicine and Support Centre, the death toll from fighting in Libya’s capital on Monday and Tuesday was 55 dead and 146 injured. The confrontations were the bloodiest in Tripoli in years, and they ended late Tuesday when one side gave over the head of a rival faction, whose seizure had sparked the fighting, to a neutral force. The clashes began on Monday, following the detention of the 444 Brigade’s commander, Colonel Mahmoud Hamza, by the rival Special Deterrence Force, according to an interior ministry spokesman. Since the NATO-backed rebellion that overthrew Gaddafi, Libya has seen more than a decade of intermittent violence. Also read: 11 killed in explosion in Dominican Republic

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CAIRO — The death toll in this week’s clashes between rival militias in Libya’s capital rose to 45 on Wednesday as troops fanned out across Tripoli to restore calm after a 24-hour bout of fighting that was the city’s most intense violence this year. The clashes erupted late on Monday between militiamen from the 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force, and continued into Tuesday evening. Hamza was later released as part of deal aimed at quelling the violence, the reports said. The death toll rose Wednesday to 45, up from the 27 dead reported Tuesday, as more casualties were confirmed, said Malek Merset, the spokesperson for Libya’s Emergency Medicine and Support Center. Libyan security forces patrolled the streets and fanned out across Tripoli on Wednesday.

The clashes with rocket launchers and machine-guns followed the detention of the 444 Brigade head, Colonel Mahmud Hamza, by the rival Al-Radaa Force on Monday, an interior ministry official said. In August last year, 32 people were killed and 159 wounded in Tripoli during battles between divided Libya’s two rival administrations. The interior ministry put in place a security plan to deploy officers to battleground districts to oversee the truce announced between the two sides. The 444 Brigade affiliated with Libya’s defence ministry controls the southern suburbs of Tripoli and other areas. The Al-Radaa force is a powerful ultra-conservative militia that acts as the capital’s police force and controls central and eastern Tripoli, Mitiga air base, the civilian airport and a prison.

CAIRO (AP) — The death toll in this week's clashes between rival militias in Libya's capital rose to 45 on Wednesday as troops fanned out across Tripoli to restore calm after a 24-hour bout of fighting that was the city's most intense violence this year. The clashes erupted late on Monday between militiamen from the 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force, and continued into Tuesday evening. Tensions flared after Mahmoud Hamza, a senior commander of the 444 brigade, was allegedly detained by the rival group at an airport in Tripoli, according to local media reports. Last August, clashes between two other militia active in the capital killed at least 23 people. “No progress whatsoever was made on those fronts.”The 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force are two of the largest militias operating in Tripoli.

CAIRO (AP) — Libyan security forces patrolled the streets and fanned out across Tripoli on Wednesday, a day after clashes between rival militias killed at least 27 people in the country’s capital, authorities said. The clashes erupted late on Monday between militiamen from the 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force, and continued into Tuesday evening. Tensions flared after Mahmoud Hamza, a senior commander of the 444 brigade, was allegedly detained by the rival group at an airport in Tripoli, according to local media reports. Amid the chaos, militias grew in wealth and power, particularly in Tripoli and the west of the country. “No progress whatsoever was made on those fronts.”The 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force are two of the largest militias operating in Tripoli.

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Clashes between two powerful militias supporting Libya’s UN-backed government erupted in Tripoli, resulting in the deaths of 55 people and injuries to 146 others. The fighting caused the city’s main airport to close and only ceased after one side released a detained commander that had triggered the conflict. Libya has been marked by political chaos since the overthrow and killing of long-serving ruler Col Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country is divided between an internationally recognized government in Tripoli and another in the east. Despite a 2020 ceasefire, factionalism remains a threat to stability.

"The number of those killed in today’s clashes has risen to 27," the channel quoted the Libyan emergency medicine center as saying, TASS reported. Previously, nine people were reported to have been killed and dozens injured. Armed clashes sparked in Tripoli late on August 14 between the 444th brigade and the so-called Special Deterrence Force. As the Libya Al Ahrar television reported later, elders of the Suq al-Jum'a district east of Tripoli handed over the commander to the chief of the GNA general staff at Mitiga Airport. However, as local television reported, gunfire and sporadic clashes in the capital continued even after the handover.

Hamza was transferred on Tuesday afternoon to the prison of the Stability Support Agency, another armed wing linked to Libya's Presidential Council, a source from the 444 Brigade, which brokered the ceasefire that remains in place on Wednesday, confirmed to EFE. "We face the danger of armed formations and we urge increased institutional support in the city of Zawiya. We must take care of the youth," Haddad declared at the time. Both Libya's Tripoli-based High Council of State, which is linked to the GUN, and the Libyan parliament, based in the eastern part of the country under Haftar's military control, condemned the attacks. Both rival chambers advocated the development of a political roadmap, through the 6+6 Joint Committee, to move forward in convening parliamentary and presidential elections and unifying the country, whose western part faces growing internal insecurity due to rivalry between militias.

A Tripoli health agency said 27 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the violence, without saying if the figure included both combatants and civilians. The Special Deterrence Force and the 444 Brigade are two of the strongest military forces in Tripoli and their fighting from late on Monday rocked districts across the capital. Libya has had little peace or security since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising and it split in 2014 between warring eastern and western factions. An assault by eastern forces on Tripoli, in the west, collapsed in 2020 leading to a ceasefire that has halted most major warfare. Turkey, which backed the Tripoli government, maintained a military presence in Libya.

The clashes erupted late on Monday between militiamen from the 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force, and continued into Tuesday evening. Hamza was later released as part of deal aimed at quelling the violence, the reports said. Libyan security forces patrolled the streets and fanned out across Tripoli on Wednesday. Last August, clashes between two other militia active in the capital killed at least 23 people. “No progress whatsoever was made on those fronts.”The 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force are two of the largest militias operating in Tripoli.

TRIPOLI: Tripoli’s worst armed clashes in a year have killed 55 people and wounded 146, Libyan media reported Wednesday, as a truce took hold. The clashes were triggered by the detention of the head of the 444 Brigade, Col. Mahmud Hamza, by the rival Al-Radaa Force on Monday, an interior ministry official said. In May, the two armed groups had clashed for hours in Tripoli, also after the arrest of a 444 Brigade member. Human Rights Watch Libya researcher Hanan Saleh expressed outrage that the capital’s armed groups continued to settle their differences with heavy weaponry in residential areas without being held accountable. The 444 Brigade is affiliated with Libya’s defense ministry and is reputed to be the North African country’s most disciplined.