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.
