CAIRO — At least five civilians were killed, including two members of the same family, by heavy shelling in Libya’s capital of Tripoli on Monday, officials in the U.N.-backed government said, despite increased international pressure to halt fighting over coronavirus concerns. Mortar shells launched by Libya's eastern-based forces struck houses in Tripoli’s southern suburbs, killing a 42-year-old woman and her nephew, said Amin al-Hashemi, a health ministry spokesman. In another mortar barrage near the Mitiga airport in Tripoli, two migrant workers were killed and one Libyan civilian was wounded, the health ministry added. A 20-year-old woman was also killed when errant shells crashed into her house in Tripoli's Tajoura neighborhood. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Khalifa Hifter, a military commander whose forces control much of the country and have been laying siege to the capital for almost a year, accused the Tripoli-based adversaries of firing Grad rockets Monday on the town of Tarhuna.

Source: International New York Times March 23, 2020 17:15 UTC