Three days of fighting between tribes in a restive city in southern Libya killed 31 people, the Libyan Ministry of Health reported on Sunday, as gunmen assassinated the country’s deputy minister of electricity in a separate attack.
The fighting pitted the African-origin Tabu tribe against the Arab-origin Awlad Soliman tribe in the city of Sabha, 650km south of Tripoli.
The ministry said the fighting, which began on Friday, also wounded 65 people.
A local leader on Saturday said that the fighting was sparked by the killing of a guard of the city’s military leader, a member of the Awlad Soliman tribe, in retaliation for 2012 killings of dozens of Tabu men.
Sabha, once a bastion of support for late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, was one of the last cities to fall under rebel control in 2011. It is also the last major city in Libya’s far south and lies on a key road leading to the border with Niger. The downfall of Qaddafi and his allied tribes in the area have seen the Tabu gained control over the borders.
Meanwhile, gunmen killed Libyan Minister of Electricity Hassan Drouai in the coastal city of Sirte late on Saturday, a security official said. Drouai was shot to death near a central market, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
Since the fall of Qaddafi in Libya’s 2011 civil war, gunmen have killed low-level government employees, activists, clerics and security officials.
Draouai’s slaying marks the first time a top government official has been targeted in the wave of killings.
Libya’s government has failed to rein in hundreds of militias born out of former rebel brigades — including those led by extremist Islamic commanders.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
RSS