Seven soldiers killed in Libya's Benghazi as tribal violence rages

A car bomb and clashes around the airport in Benghazi have resulted in the deaths of seven Libyan soldiers and left more than 60 people wounded on Thursday, according to military sources. 

 

An army convoy was targetted by two car bombs which killed three soldiers. Four others died in clashes with militants including militiamen of the Shura Revolutionary Counsil, which includes members of the Islamist group Ansar Al-Shariah, who now control most of the city.

 

A spokesman for the army's special forces said 62 wounded soldiers were transferred to hospital in al-Marj, 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Benghazi.

 

Militiamen of the Shura Revolutionary Council - a Benghazi-based umbrella group of Islamist militias - had launched a fresh assault on the airport on Wendnesday. The airport is a site of both civilian and military airfields.

 

The airport is the last remaining bastion in Benghazi of forces of renegade former general Khalifa Haftar, who launched a military campaign against the Islamists back May. 

 

General Sagr al-Jerushi, an aide to Haftar, said warplanes and helicopters were being used to beat back the Islamists' advance on the airport.

 

The Islamists, who evicted Haftar's forces from their main bases in Benghazi at the end of July, killing dozens of soldiers, have over the last month set their sights on the airport. 

 

 

This comes as the death toll from tribal clashes, raging since Sunday in Libya's southern city of Sabha, rose to 17 a medical source said on Monday. 

 

Calm now prevails in Sabha following days of clashes between the Qadhadhfa and Awlad Suleiman tribes, the source, who works at the city's government hospital, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on the condition of anonymity.

 

Over 50 people, injured in the clashes, are currently receiving treatment, the source said.

 

Military official Alaa al-Huweik, also told AA that efforts were underway to hammer out a ceasefire between the two warring tribes.

 

A military official earlier said that clashes erupted when a member of the Awlad Suleiman tribe was killed by a member of the Qadhadhfa, the tribe from which late Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi hailed.

 

"Awlad Suleiman tribesmen wanted to retaliate, triggering clashes," Mohamed al-Zaraz, an army commander in southern Libya, told AA.

 

Libya has been rocked by political instability since Gaddafi's ouster and death three years ago.