47 Die in Battle for Libya Airport

Militias resume fighting after cease-fire talks fail
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 21, 2014 12:03 AM CDT
47 Die in Battle for Libya Airport
Smoke rises from earlier fighting at Tripoli's international airport.   (AP Photo)

Clashes between rival militias fighting for control of the international airport in Libya's capital, Tripoli, have killed 47 people over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry says. The ministry says that the fighting, which resumed yesterday after cease-fire efforts failed, also left 120 people wounded, and it hasn't yet received all casualty reports. The weeklong battle over the airport is being waged by a powerful militia from the western city of Zintan, which controls the facility, and Islamist-led militias, including fighters from Misrata, east of Tripoli. The country is going through one of its worst spasms of violence since the 2011 ouster of Moammar Gadhafi. Rival militias have forced a weeklong closure of gas stations and government offices. (More Libya stories.)

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