Four killed in armed clashes in western Libya

TRIPOLI: Four people were killed and several wounded when armed groups clashed on Sunday in the western Libyan city of Gharyan, several sources said.

“Fighting broke out suddenly in the early hours between armed groups in the city, resulting in four deaths and several injuries,” a security source in the city some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Tripoli told AFP.

The source said the fighting has continued “intermittently” in different areas of Gharyan, forcing authorities to cut access to the city to “protect the lives of pedestrians and travellers”. A medical source at the Gharyan hospital confirmed the casualties, telling AFP that four people were dead and 10 had been wounded.

Unverified videos shared on social media and picked up by local media outlets showed dozens of armed men roaming the streets of Gharyan as well as several burnt-out armoured vehicles. Libya has seen more than a decade of stop-start conflict since the NATO-backed revolt that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

The north African country is split between interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah´s UN-backed government in the west, based in Tripoli, and another in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar. The Tripoli-based government did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment about the clashes.