Tripoli’s worst fighting in a year shows the limits of peace in Libya

TRIPOLI, Sept. 3 (Reuters) – Fighting between rival armed forces took place early Friday, the heaviest clashes in the Libyan capital since the conflict between Eastern and Western factions stopped a year ago.

A resident of Salah al-Din district south of Tripoli said the shootings began around 2.30am and continued throughout the morning with medium and light weapons.

The conflict in Tripoli between armed groups fighting to control both the territory and state institutions would further undermine the prospect of the December elections as part of a plan to end a decade of chaos, violence and division.

Despite the ceasefire and progress earlier this year towards a political solution to the Libyan crisis, there has been no movement towards the integration of its myriad armed groups into a unified national military.

The new fighting pitted the 444th Brigade against the Stabilization Support Force, two of the main forces in Tripoli, a witness said.

The head of the Tripoli Military Zone, a structure created to organize the city’s various armed forces during the civil war, indicated that the fighting was aimed at halting the activities of the 444th Brigade.

“What happened was to correct the brigade’s deviation from its course and non-compliance with military orders,” Abdulbaset Marwan said in a video statement.

The 444th Brigade told Reuters he had been “surprised by an assault by gunmen” and said he was surprised by Marwan’s statement.

The UN mission in Libya called for an immediate halt to the fighting, saying it had “grave concern”.

VIOLENCE

Libya is a major oil producer, and while it has been able to maintain production over the past decade, disputes have sometimes shut down exports, even for months last year.

The fighting comes after major clashes last month in the city of Zawiya, west of Tripoli, and small incidents of friction or clashes inside the capital, including a shooting this week at a state institution.

In eastern Libya, controlled by Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), there have also been shootings and other incidents of violence in recent months.

Libya has had little peace since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi a long time ago, and split in 2014 between warring Eastern and Western factions.

However, they agreed to a ceasefire last year and a new unity government was installed which both sides backed in March to prepare for the December national elections, moves seen as the best opportunity for the peace of recent years.

The unity government based in Tripoli, however, has struggled to unify state institutions or prepare for elections, with the parliament based in the east rejecting its budgets and not agreeing on a constitutional basis for the election.

Political factions have repeatedly contested for the role and powers of the caretaker government, as well as for control of state institutions and the public stock market.

Wolfram Lacher, of the German think tank SWP, said that while there was the possibility of a new escalation, a mediated solution is likely to resolve the fighting in the short term.

However, “similar clashes will have to be repeated in Tripoli and elsewhere,” he added.

Report by Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli and Hani Amara in Istanbul, written by Angus McDowall, edited by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean

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