At least 11 people were killed and 59 others injured Monday in clashes between the forces of Khalifa Haftar and Islamist militants in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, medical and security sources said.
“The Benghazi Medical Centre received seven bodies apart from 35 people wounded during clashes between government forces and Islamist militants in Al-Laithi district, in downtown Benghazi,” said an official at the medical centre, according to a Xinhua report.
On the other hand, a source at the Al-Jala hospital said: “The hospital received four bodies and 24 people wounded in clashes in Al-Laithi and Al-Sabri in downtown Benghazi.”
Medical sources said that the dead were military personnel and armed citizens who supported Haftar’s forces. It is believed that the Islamist militants had also sustained heavy losses.
Fighting broke out last Thursday as the Libyan army tried to expel Islamist groups from their strongholds in the Al-Laithi district, while fighting in the Al-Sabri area has continued for over two months.
Since mid-October, the Libyan army and forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar have been waging a war to retake the city of Benghazi, which was captured by Islamist militias in July.
Benghazi, the seedbed of the 2011 protests that toppled Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi, has witnessed a drastic escalation of violence since then.
The city is now plagued by assassinations, kidnappings and deadly clashes between different armed groups.
–IANS