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the The United Nations evacuated another 350 refugees from a detention center located in southern Tripoli amid escalating violence near the Libyan Capital city.
The Libyan National Army (LNA), led by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, allied with a rival government in eastern Libya, launched an offensive on Tripoli earlier this month but no 39; has so far failed to violate the city's south defenses.
The group of refugees could be seen Thursday traveling by bus to a detention center in Zawiya, a town 40 km west of the capital, bringing the total number of evacuees since Wednesday to about 675.
The refugees came from a facility located in the Qasr Ben Gashir district and run by the UN-recognized government in Tripoli, an area now the main theater of ongoing fighting.
The action was triggered on Tuesday by reports of armed violence against detainees protesting the conditions in which they were being held, UNHCR said in a statement on Wednesday. At least 12 refugees had to be hospitalized after being attacked, the UN said.
According to the UN, some 3,000 refugees and migrants are stranded in detention centers in Tripoli and are threatened by "deteriorating security" around the capital. Many inmates have fled war and persecution in their home country.
The clashes continue
At the same time, a Reuters news agency reporter in the suburb of Ain Zara, also in the south of Tripoli, was the scene of violent clashes, both sides using firearms. Artillery and anti-aircraft.
The forces loyal to the Tripoli government managed to repel the LNA on some southern front lines, while the LNA was still fighting in the south of Tripoli. Tripoli forces have gained ground in some parts of Ain Zara.
Shots rang out in a narrow street lined with vans mounted with anti-aircraft guns while fighters allied with the Tripoli forces shouted: "Haftar, we are coming".
A fighter from Zintan, a region to the west of the capital, used his anti-aircraft gun for several minutes. Later, he was killed by a rocket, told his comrades to Reuters.
Two other members of the same armed group died later, with shell fire in the southern suburbs heard in the center of Tripoli late at night, witnesses said.
The LNA still holds the advanced base of Gharyan, a town 80 km south of Tripoli, hard to conquer because of its mountainous location.
Hospitals are struggling with a chronic shortage of medical equipment due to power outages and weakened water pumping stations, the relief agency said in a statement issued after three weeks of delay. # 39; clashes.
"It is crucial that hospitals, medical facilities, health personnel and vehicles carrying the injured be allowed to operate safely," the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.
The World Health Organization said on Twitter that 278 people have been killed in the past three weeks, while 1,332 others have been injured.
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Violent clashes near Tripoli in Libya in a "new phase of attack" |
SOURCE:
Reuters News Agency
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