Clashes between rival Libyan militias fighting for control of the capital's international airport killed 47 people over the last week, Libya's Health Ministry said, as violence in an eastern city killed five, according to Reuters.
The weeklong battle in Tripoli began when Islamist-led militias launched a surprise assault on the airport, under control of rival militias from the western mountain town of Zintan, Reuters reported. The clashes resumed Sunday after cease-fire efforts failed.
On Monday, the burned-out shell of an Airbus A330 sat on the tarmac, a $113 million passenger jet for Libya's state-owned Afriqiyah Airways destroyed in the fighting, according to Reuters.
"This was the pride of the Libyan fleet," Abdelkader Mohammed Ahmed, Libya's transportation minister, told journalists at the airport, Reuters reported. "This airplane used to fly to South Africa, Bangladesh and China."
The ministry said on its website late Sunday that the fighting killed 47 people and wounded 120, according to Reuters. It also said it had not yet received the full casualty report.
Libya is witnessing one of its worst spasms of violence since the ouster of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, Reuters reported. All the militias fighting around the airport are on the government's payroll since successive transitional authorities have depended on them to restore order.
The rival militias, made up largely of former rebels, have forced a week-long closure of gas stations and government offices, according to Reuters.
In recent days, armed men have attacked vehicles carrying money from the Central Bank to local banks, forcing their closure, Reuters reported.
Libyan government officials and activists have increasingly been targeted in the violence, according to Reuters. Gunmen kidnapped two lawmakers in the western suburbs of Tripoli on Sunday, a parliament statement said.
Tripoli was calmer on Monday, but in Benghazi, militants linked to Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia attacked an army camp and were repelled by troops and forces loyal to renegade retired general Khalifa Haftar, who has been carrying out a self-declared war on Islamist fighters, security sources said, Reuters reported.
