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Seventeen people, including a militia chief and several soldiers, were killed in fighting near the Benghazi airport this week, military and medical sources said on Thursday. Libya has been in turmoil since the toppling of longtime dictator Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, and the interim authorities have since been facing the powerful militiamenwho had toppledGadhafi.
Salim Nabbous, commander of the Shura Revolutionary Council, died along with two comrades on Wednesday in clashes at the airport, a source said. The Shura Revolutionary Council, an alliance of rebel militiamen, has been attempting to wrestle control of Benghazi airport from former general Khalifa Haftar, whose own rebel brigade had launched a campaign against the militia alliance in May.
A spokesman for the army loyal to Haftar said that fourteen of their fighters had been killed in the past three days.
According to sources, several military warplanes and helicopters were flying over Benghazi on Thursday, and anti-aircraft fire can be heard in a few neighborhoods.
Since September, militiamen have been looking to seize the airport, with its civilian and military airfields, from the separatist Haftar’s forces – the airport is their final redoubt in the city which is almost completely dominated by the militiamen. The two clash almost every day; on October 2nd, 36 soldiers were killed and over 100 soldiers were wounded in clashes and car bombs in what was the most violent day since Haftar had announced his campaign to eliminate the militias.
Benghazi, the cradle of the uprising against Muammar Gadhafi three years ago, in a regular scene of fighting, with several security force personnel, journalist and political activists killed in the city. The Shura Revolutionary Council includes militant group Ansar al-Sharia, which the US has labeled as a terrorist group.
Last week, the UN Security Council warned that sanctions could be placed against those who reject peace in Libya, in a move aimed at shoring up UN-mediated talks on bringing an end to the violence.