TRIPOLI, Libya — At least 56 people have been killed in six days of fighting near the Libyan capital of Tripoli, the U.N. World Health Organization said on Thursday, warning against a prolonged conflict in the area.
The dead included an ambulance driver and two medical doctors, the WHO said in an online statement.
The fighting also left at least 266 others injured, according to the statement.
Last week, Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army, or LNA, ordered his forces to seize Tripoli from a rival government backed by the U.N.
Clashes have since taken place in the southern suburbs of Tripoli, displacing thousands of civilians.
Fierce fighting was raging on Thursday between LNA forces and their rivals in Tripoli’s southern suburb of al-Sawani, a local official said.
“Panic grips residents of the area due to the fall of shells and the use of heavy weapons by both sides,” al-Sawani spokesman Nazar Mohammed told dpa.
He called the humanitarian situation on the edges of al-Sawani, around 20 miles south of Tripoli, “bad,” saying civilians are being trapped in the flashpoint area.
The battles also resulted in power outages in several suburbs of Tripoli, Libya’s official news agency LANA reported.
Haftar’s offensive has raised global fears of a worsening conflict in oil-rich Libya, which has experienced chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was ousted in a 2011 NATO-backed revolt.
