Death toll raised in southern Libya clashes

Protesters in Libya Tripoli – Emad Agag Three days of clashes between tribal groups in the southern Libyan city of Sabha have left about 25 people dead, according to reports, as the city’s National Transitional Council NTC officials resigned . The clashes escalated on Sunday between former rebels and gunmen from the Tibu people, a minority ethnic group.
The clashes were first centred on the airport but then moved to the Sabha city centre. Sabha lies 750 kilometres (465 miles) south of the capital Tripoli.
Libyan media sources said on Tuesday that Abdulmajid Saif al-Nasser, an NTC representative for Sabha, said he was resigning in protest because he said the Council was not doing enough to stop the violence.
"I have not seen any reaction from the Council to what is happening now in Sabha. The air force has not been sent out, there was only a plane from the health ministry carrying medicine," he told Libyan television. "The state is supposed to intervene in these cases ... but there is no state."
The ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) is struggling to assert its authority across Libya, where rival militias and tribal groups are jostling for power and resources after the revolution that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.
Ibrahim Misbah, a doctor at the regional hospital said the death toll had risen to 25.
"The hospital crew has been working around the clock since Monday night and the injured keep coming in," he told Reuters.
An Interior Ministry official said the army had sent 300 soldiers stationed in southern Libya to help calm the situation on Monday. Another 300 soldiers left Tripoli on Tuesday to assist, he added.
For his part, Mousa al-Koni, a Tibu representative on the NTC, told Reuters by phone from Tunis that the clashes were an unfortunate escalation of an internal dispute after Tibu former fighters tried to steal a car from a member of the Sabha militia.
Koni said a reconciliation committee was being formed to help stop the violence.
Meanwhile, Sabha fighter Oweidat al-Hifnawi said the militiamen opened fire at each other and clashes, which first centred on the airport, had moved downtown.
"There are Tibu snipers all over the Sabha city centre and the number of the wounded keeps going up," Hifnawi said.
Hifnawi said that the government forces had arrived in Sabha and were now clashing with the Tibu fighters in the city.
Deputy interior minister Omar al-Khadrawi told Libyan television on Monday that the army chief was going to send a defence team to Sabha
Last month, dozens of people were killed in days of clashes between tribes in the far southeastern province of Al Kufra. Armed forces eventually intervened to stop the fighting, in a rare example of the Tripoli government imposing its authority.
Members of the Tibu ethnic group, who were also involved in the fighting in Kufra, are mainly found in Chad but also inhabit parts of southern Libya.