OFFICIAL: OVER 70 KILLED IN LIBYA'S TRIBAL CLASHES

Posted on March 28, 2012  by

Pro-Gaddafi armed men fire their artillery during clashes with fighters loyal to Libya's new leaders in the city of Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli.

NTC POWERLESS AMID ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE AND MILITIA RULE

A Libyan government spokesman says more than 70 people have been killed and many more injured during three days of clashes between tribal groups in southern Libya.

"It is regrettable that more than 70 people have been killed and more than 150 have been wounded" in the desert town of Sabha since Monday, government spokesman Nasser al-Manaa told reporters in the capital city of Tripoli on Wednesday.

The clashes in Sabha, about 650 kilometers south of Tripoli, erupted on Monday after a man from the Toubou tribe allegedly killed a member of the Abu Seif tribe.

A local official said there were still clashes in the city, but efforts were being made to secure a truce between the rival tribes.

"The national army and a committee of elders have entered the town in a bid to secure a truce," said Abdelmajid Seif al-Nasser, a town official who quit his post on Tuesday from the ruling National Transitional Council in protest over the body's inability to impose its rule on the country.

Months after the fall of the country's former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is still the scene of almost daily clashes between squabbling tribes and militias.

The new government has been unable to secure the country as it lacks a viable security force.

MN/GHN