Fighting in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Saturday was the worst there in two years and has raised fears that the country could plunge back into full-scale war. Among the victims was Mustafa Baraka, a comedian known for his social media videos mocking militias and corruption. Baraka died after being shot in the chest, said Malek Mercet, a spokesman for emergency services. Mersett said emergency services were still trying to evacuate injured and civilians caught up in the fighting, which broke out overnight and continued into Saturday night. Smoke rises after the clashes in Tripoli [Hazem Ahmed/Reuters] In an updated death toll, the health ministry said 140 people were injured while 64 families had to be evacuated from areas around the fighting. It said hospitals and medical centers in the capital had been bombed and ambulance teams were not allowed to evacuate civilians, in acts that “constitute war crimes”. Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina reported cautious calm in Tripoli on Saturday night. “Things have calmed down since the fighting started. But people here still fear that Libya may be on the brink of a full-scale conflict,” he said from the Libyan capital. The power struggle in Libya has pitted the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) under Abdul Hamid Dbeibah against a rival administration under Fathi Bashagha backed by the eastern parliament. Dbeibah’s GNU, installed as part of a UN-led peace process after a previous round of violence, said the latest clashes in Tripoli were sparked by Bashagha-aligned fighters firing on a convoy in the capital, while other pro-government units of Bashagha had gathered outside the city. He accused Bashaga of walking out of talks to resolve the crisis. Bashaga, who is backed by the Libyan parliament and eastern Europe-based military strongman Khalifa Haftar, says the GNU’s mandate has expired. However, he has so far been unable to take office in Tripoli, as Dbeiba has insisted he will only hand over power to an elected government. Bashaga’s administration said in a statement that it had never rejected talks and that its own proposals had been rejected by Dbeiba. He did not immediately respond to the claim that he was linked to the clashes. Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that forces aligned with Basaga tried to gain ground in Tripoli from several directions on Saturday, but his main military convoy turned back to the coastal city of Misrata before reaching the capital. Dbeibah later posted a video online showing him visiting militants in the city after the fighting stopped. Turkey, which has a military presence around Tripoli and helped forces in the city fend off an eastern offensive in 2020 with drone strikes, called for an immediate ceasefire and said “we continue to stand by our Libyan brothers”. The United States’ ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, said in a statement that Washington “condemns” the increase in violence, urging “an immediate ceasefire and UN-facilitated talks between the warring parties.” Fighters loyal to Libyan Government of National Unity (GNU) leader and Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah gather in the streets amid clashes in Tripoli [Stringer/Reuters] Emadeddin Badi, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, warned that violence could quickly escalate. “Civil war has its own logic, it is harmful to both civilian infrastructure and people, so even if it is not a long war, this conflict will be very destructive as we have already seen,” he told AFP . He added that the fighting could strengthen Haftar and those close to him. “They are going to take advantage of the divisions in western Libya and have a better negotiating position once the dust settles.” Tripoli’s city council blamed the ruling political class for the worsening situation in the capital and urged the international community “to protect civilians in Libya.” “Civil society institutions in Tripoli strongly condemn the armed conflict in the city of Tripoli and hold the participating parties responsible for the shedding of civilian blood, the intimidation of security and the destruction of private and public property,” said Omar Weheba, an official of city. Libya has had little peace since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi and split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, drawing regional powers apart.
