A glimpse into Tripoli’s wreckage

As fighting between militias intensifies on the streets of Libya’s capital, families are fleeing their homes to escape.

”We could hear the whistling sound of the missile overhead, and then the devastating effect when it hit,” 47-year-old Tripoli resident Wael Abuharrus told Middle East Eye.

He has just evacuated his family from Swani district, in south west Tripoli. “The sound was unbearable - it was so close. Every time a missile was launched we thought it was going to hit us” he said.

Wael, who endured the 2011 revolution that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi without leaving his home, had watched helplessly for days as smoke gradually rose from more of his neighbours' houses.

“I was going to stay and look after the house and neighbourhood, but my family insisted and I need them to be safe” said Wael.

The violience has intensified since 21 July, when the west of Tripoli came under some of the heavy shelling following fighting between militias over Tripoli airport.

Unlike during the revolution, Wael says the strikes are random and have no real target. “So we waited for it to calm down and just before sunset we set off” he adds.

When visited on Monday, the roads in Swani were empty, with nothing seen but destruction on the main road. At an old church, a car that was rigged with explosives went off in the early days of fighting bares bullet and shrapnel holes. A a fruit and vegetable stands left behind decaying in the sun, and militia cars storm up and down the main road on patrol. Swani, once a gateway between the mountains in south of Tripoli and the capital, has turned into a ghost town.

This struggle for power between Islamist militias and others in support of former Major General Khalifa Hifter’s offensive against the Islamist forces in Libya has led to heavy fighting in both Tripoli and Benghazi. The conflict is fuelling worries that Libya is on the point of turning into a failed state.

Hifter began his offensive without the consent of Libya’s government in May of this year, beginning in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi a  war on Islamist militias that has resulted in the death of over 200 people in Benghazi alone. The fight only really began in Tripoli two weeks ago but so far more over 90 people have been reported killed in the capital by Libya’s health ministry, many of them civilians caught in the cross fire.

Militias from the city of Zintan supporting Hifter and based in Tripoli’s international airport came under attack 13 July by Islamist militias from Misrata. Their objective was to force Zintan out of Tripoli and to keep control of the country’s capital, largely controlled by Islamist militias from the city.

However, neither side has made any progress in either defending their turf, or forcing the other out.  On 25 July, Tripoli residents of the city’s west gatheedr near Tripoli’s Champion football team’s stadium, not to attend a match, but to help a family whose house opposite the stadium had fallen victim to a mortar shell. “My brother heard a loud explosion, so went to the roof to see, and just before he opened the door a second shell hit” said Muftah Salem.

Muftah, a 39-year-old father of two, was glad his brother was only injured and not killed, “He was thrown down a flight of stairs. he’s in hospital now, and doctors say he will be OK”, said Muftah.

People on the street just below debated who fired, “it must have been Zintan” said one man, “No, no it was Misrata” said another.

The one thing they agreed on is that the only ones losing this war are the civilians caught up in the raging militia battlefield.

As elders discussed the incident, Children scavenged through the wreckage looking for shrapnel from the missile to keep as souvenir. The bombed houses are now becoming landmarks, “Take a right just after the house that was destroyed” said a young man giving directions to a friend over the phone.

In time of war and hostility it often seems that prayer is the only way to escape the madness, this wasn’t the case for the Othman Bin Affan mosque in Ghot Alsha'al district in Tripoli, which was was hit at 4pm on Thursday. “We were praying when it happened, when the mortar hit the mosque we had just started our prayers”, said Jamal Ibrahim

Jamal is a resident of the area who grew up on the street the mosque is on, and has prayed at that mosque since his childhood. The 35-year-old mosque has always been a part of his life. “It’s a well populated area with no military or militia camps anywhere near, so why would you aim towards us, why aim for a mosque?” he asked.

The mosque was mildly hit, but the rocket ricocheted of the mosque roof into a Koran school opposite. “Thankfully it was prayer time, and the children who otherwise would have been in the class destroyed by the rocket, and would have been killed,” said Jamal.

 “We just heard a loud whistling sound and then a heavy thud as the rocket made contact with the mosque that threw us to the ground, we thank Allah that no one was killed”, said Ezadeen Alareith.

Ezadeen, the Imam at this mosque, was dismayed by the acts that led to the destruction of parts of a mosque and school. “You hear that? They are still firing”. At 1pm on Friday, just after prayer, the sound of nearby fighting could still be heard.

This bombardment has become a daily occurrence for Tripoli, with homes wrecked and families torn away from their loved ones with the fighting only intensifying every day. The roads now are almost completely empty, apart from the rubbish that hasn’t been collected for days that's rotting under Libya’s scorching sun.

There are petrol queues stretching for miles, electricity cuts for up to 15 hours a day in some parts of Tripoli and communication blackouts. So many have opted to leave the city and others the country - often seeking refuge with family abroad, and not knowing when the trip home will be.

Supplies in shops are down and hospitals and pharmacies are running out of medical items. “Because of the airport being closed and the fighting still ongoing we’ve not been able to bring in new supplies” said Yousef a pharmacist in Tripoli.  

Many of the main roads are blocked with large piles of sand put there by militias to secure the surroundings of their bases, the sound of bullets being fired and the earth shaking sound of missiles and rockets landing is unavoidable in Tripoli.

The only quiet morning the city has had since the turf war began was 26 July, the day the US embassy evacuated its staff - with US army aircraft in the air no bullets were fired. “We’ve got to thank the US army for scaring the militias into one night of sleep” said Bassem, a student who lives in Tripoli.