TRIPOLI (Reuters) -The casualty toll from clashes in Libya’s capital Tripoli over Monday and Tuesday was 55 killed and 146 wounded, the emergency services said.
City elders announced late on Tuesday that they had brokered a deal to end Tripoli’s deadliest violence in years with the Special Deterrence Force handing 444 Brigade commander Mahmoud Hamza over to a third faction, the Stability Support Apparatus.
Hamza had been seized by the Special Deterrence Force, which controls Mitiga airport, as he attempted to travel on Monday.
Airlines that on Tuesday stopped using Mitiga airport, where some of the worst fighting took place, resumed flights on Wednesday, they said.
As part of the deal announced by the elders, police and other security forces that stayed neutral in the clashes moved into areas where the fighting took place.
However, the dispute remains unresolved and a source in 444 Brigade said it might resume military operations if Hamza was not returned to his own base.
Major warfare in Libya has been paused since a 2020 truce between the main eastern and western sides, but rival factions still hold most territory and a lasting solution to the conflict that has raged since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising looks distant.
Libya has been beset by violence and chaos since the overthrow and killing of its long-serving ruler Muammar Gaddafi following a bombing campaign by the U.S.-led NATO military alliance in 2011. The resulting chaos and factional divisions then escalated into a regional proxy war fueled by foreign powers, who poured weapons and mercenaries into the country.
Since 2015, Libya has been divided between the internationally-recognized GNA in Tripoli and lawmakers in Tobruk, allied to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar.
The Government of National Unity of Libya was supported by countries such as Qatar, Turkey, some European countries and the United Nations, and countries such as Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE also supported the army of Khalifa Haftar, a retired general based in Benghazi and Tobruk.
The two rivals fought for power in the country for several years, and after a year of intense conflict that led to the advances of the government of unity to the capital city of Tripoli, they announced a ceasefire in last August.