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Benghazi deaths accumulate

October 3, 2014

Deaths from attacks on anti-Islamist forces in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi have risen to 36. Celebrated as the "cradle of the revolution," the port town has become the scene of almost daily violence since 2011.

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Libya: Benghazi
Image: picture-alliance/abaca

Bombs and clashes have killed dozens of soldiers and wounded more than 70 around Benghazi's Benina airport, a military spokesman said Friday. On Thursday, suicide bombers in three explosives-rigged cars blew themselves up at Benina airport, the last stronghold of forces loyal to retired General Khalifa Haftar, who in May launched an offensive against Islamists in the region.

"Thirty-six soldiers were killed on Thursday in three car bomb attacks, followed by fighting between the army and Islamists," a special forces spokesman told the news agency AFP on Friday.

On Wednesday, militiamen of the Shura Revolutionary Council, which includes the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, launched the latest assault on Benina, which has both civilian and military airfields. General Sagr al-Jerushi, an aide to Haftar, said the militia and Libyan troops had used warplanes and helicopters to repel the advance on the airport.

A Health Ministry official said that fighting had left 79 people dead in Benghazi in September. Human Rights Watch reported that more than 250 people have lost their lives in the port city and in Derna, another Islamist stronghold further east, since the beginning of the year.

'Peace and stability'

To bolster UN efforts toward talks, the Security Council voted on Thursday in New York to approve sanctions against those who rejected peace in Libya. In a unanimous statement, the 15 members of the council "expressed their readiness to use targeted sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, against individuals or entities that threatened Libya's peace and stability or undermined its political transition."

After militias who overthrew Moammar Gadhafi in the 2011 NATO-backed uprising turned their guns on authorities and each other, Benghazi became the scene of regular fighting and murders of officials, political activists and journalists. Islamists and their allies, including forces from the powerful western city of Misrata, have taken control of the capital, Tripoli.

Libya: Tobruk Parliament
The legislature now attempts to run the country from outside the capitalImage: Reuters

The unofficial "Libya Dawn" government rivals the one appointed by the internationally recognized parliament elected in June, which fled Tripoli for the eastern town of Tobruk because of security concerns.

Negotiators hope to resume the UN-brokered dialogue, which began on September 29, after the Eid al-Adha holiday ends on Sunday, but the Libya Dawn coalition and militants in Benghazi have rejected that idea.

mkg/msh (AFP, dpa)