More than 140 killed in attack on LNA base in Libya

Raid on airbase used by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's forces was by a militia allied to the UN-backed Government of National Accord, whose prime minister met the LNA chief in Abu Dhabi this month.

Tripoli // At least 141 people, mostly soldiers loyal to Libya’s Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, have been killed in an attack on a southern airbase, a spokesman for his forces said on Friday.

Members of the Third Force militia loyal to the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli on Thursday attacked the base used by Field Marshal Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), military sources said earlier.

LNA spokesman Ahmad Al Mesmari said the victims included civilians who worked at the Brak Al Shati airbase or were in the area, and that summary executions took place.

“The soldiers were returning from a military parade. They weren’t armed. Most of them were executed,” he said.

The GNA said late on Friday that a commission of inquiry had been set up to investigate the attack.

It said it had decided to suspend its defence minister, Al-Mahdi Al Barghati, and the head of the Third Force from their duties until those responsible were identified.

Both the GNA and defence ministry earlier condemned the assault and said they had not ordered any such action.The unity government, a rival administration in eastern Libya and their respective backers are battling for influence in Libya, which has been wracked by chaos since the fall of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.

The LNA does not recognise the authority of the GNA, and instead supports the rival authorities based in the east.

The UN envoy to Libya earlier on Friday voiced alarm at reports of the attack on the base, 650 kilometres south of Tripoli.

“I am outraged by reports of significant numbers of fatalities, including civilians and by reports that summary executions may have taken place,” Martin Kobler said.

Britain’s ambassador to Libya, Peter Millett, also denounced the airbase assault.

“Disgusted by attack on Brak Al Shati & reports of mass executions. Perpetrators must be brought to justice,” he wrote on Twitter.

The incident at the Brak base in Wadi Al Shati district comes a month after an attack by the LNA on the Tamenhant airbase controlled by the Third Force near the south’s main city of Sebha.

That attack was called off after a reconciliation meeting between Field Marshal Haftar and unity government head Fayez Al Sarraj in Abu Dhabi on May 2.

Aguila Saleh, the speaker of the eastern-based parliament, which is supported by the LNA, accused the Misurata-based Third Force of a “serious breach of the truce agreement reached in Abu Dhabi”.

In fresh violence on Friday, a pro-Haftar tribal chief, Sheikh Ibrayek Alwati, and five other people including a child were killed in a car bombing outside a mosque in Slouq, about 50km south of Benghazi.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but figures associated with the LNA have previously been targeted by its rivals in similar attacks.

The LNA has been fighting a three-year campaign against extremist groups and other opponents in Benghazi and other parts of eastern Libya.

Meanwhile, France has said it was reviewing its position on the Libyan conflict and for the first time openly called for a united national army that included Field Marshal Haftar’s to battle extremist militants.

“Libya needs to build a national army under civilian control with the participation of all the forces that fight terrorism across the country, including those of General Haftar,” the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

“In contact with our European partners and neighbouring countries, France will study ways of reinforcing our political and security activity to help restore Libyan institutions and an army capable of defeating the terrorists.”

* Agence France-Presse and Reuters