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The Libyan government on Tuesday said that it was considering asking for international help to restore security in the country, as fighting between rival militia near Tripoli airport has pushed the country towards a civil war.
Liberal and hard-line militiamen have been locked in a lethal power struggle, and the country’s main airport, which was closed for security reasons on Sunday, came under attack late on Monday.
Soon afterwards, the Libyan government said that it was “looking into the possibility of making an appeal for international forces on the ground to re-establish security and help the government impose its authority”. The spokesman for the government added that the international forces would help prevent anarchy, protect civilians and let the government build up its security forces.
In 2011, NATO warplanes had helped topple Dictator Mohammed Gaddafi, and ever since, a power struggle between several armed rival groups has wrecked the country.
Speaking in Vienna, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Washington was “deeply concerned” with the growing level of unrest in Libya, and was “working very hard to find political cohesion”.
“Every single day in the State Department we make assessments about the level of violence, about our personnel who are there, about our embassy”, he said.
Clashes had first broken out at Tripoli airport on Sunday between Zintan militiamen and other rival groups. In a renewed attack launched on Monday, several rockets were fired, one of which struck a plane, and caused the death of a security guard and injuries to six others, officials said. Ten aircraft of Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways, Libya’s main carriers, had been damaged in the attack, while the airports closure severed Libya’s air links to the rest of the world.
The airport in the city of Misrata was also forced to shut down on Monday since it is linked to Tripoli airport’s control tower. However, Libyan authorities on Tuesday announced that air traffic has resumed at Misrata and at the Miitiga military airport near Tripoli.