* International envoys call for immediate ceasefire
* New parliament due to begin in August (Add details on the clashes, and UK
embassy attack)
By Feras Bosalum and Ayman al-Warfalli
BENGHAZI, Libya, July 27 (Reuters) - At least 36 people were killed in
Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, many of them civilian, where Libyan
Special Forces and Islamist militants clashed on Saturday night and Sunday
morning, medical and security sources said.
The government said more than 150 people have died in the capital Tripoli
and Benghazi in two weeks of fighting as clashes forced U.S. and foreign
diplomats to pull out of the country.
In Tripoli, 23 people, all Egyptian workers, were killed when a rocket hit
their home on Saturday during fighting between rival militias battling over
the city's main airport, the Egyptian state news agency reported.
Since the clashes erupted a fortnight ago, 94 people have died in the
capital, and more than 400 have been injured as militias exchanged rocket
and artillery fire across southern Tripoli, the health ministry said.
Another 55 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Benghazi since the
clashes have intensified over the last week between regular forces and
Islamist militants who are entrenched in the city.
"Most of the victims we have noticed are civilians as the fighters have
their own hospitals on the battlefield," a Benghazi medical source told
Reuters.
In the last two weeks, Libya has descended into its deadliest violence since
the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, with the central government unable
to impose order.
The United States, the United Nations and Turkey have pulled their diplomats
out of the North African country.
The United States evacuated its embassy on Saturday, driving diplomats
across the border into Tunisia under heavy military protection because of
Tripoli clashes near the embassy compound.
A British embassy convoy was hit by gunfire during an attempted hijacking
outside the capital Tripoli on the way to the Tunisian border, but no-one
was injured in the incident, an embassy official said on Sunday.
"It was an attempted hijack as the convoy was on its way to the Tunisian
border," the official said. "No one was injured but vehicles were damaged."
On Sunday, shelling continued in Tripoli around the international airport
that is controlled by militias from the western city of Zintan. More
Islamist-leaning rival brigades are trying to force them from the airport,
which Zintanis have controlled since the fall of Tripoli.
But clashes were far heavier in Benghazi overnight, where regular army and
air force units have joined with a renegade ex-army general who has launched
a self-declared campaign to oust Islamist militants from the city.
A source from the Special forces fighting Islamist militants in Benghazi
told Reuters clashes involved warplanes hitting militant positions belonging
to Ansar al Sharia and another group in the city.
Libya's Western allies worry the OPEC country is becoming polarised between
the two main factions of competing militia brigades and their political
allies, whose battle is shaping the country's transition.
Special envoys for Libya from the Arab League, the United States and
European countries expressed their concerns about the situation in Libya,
saying it had reached a "critical stage" and called for an immediate
ceasefire.
"The UN should play a leading role in reaching a ceasefire in conjunction
with the Libyan government and other internal partners, with the full
support of the international envoys," a statement issued after a meeting in
Brussels said.
A new Libyan parliament was elected in June and Western governments hope
warring parties may be able to reach a political agreement when the
lawmakers meet in August for the first session.
But three years after Gaddafi's demise, Libya's transition to democracy has
been delayed by political infighting and militia violence. Armed groups have
also targeted the oil industry to pressure the state.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Elumami in Benghazi; Writing by Aziz El
Yaakoubi; Editing by Patrick Markey, Angus MacSwan and David Evans)
U.S. evacuates Libya embassy after 'free-wheeling militia violence'
Sat Jul 26, 2014 9:36pm GMT
* U.S. embassy staff travel to Tunisia under armed guard
* Kerry says militia violence posed threat to staff
* Security in Libya is sensitive issue after 2012 attack (Adds details from
embassy, diplomatic numbers)
By Patrick Markey
TRIPOLI, July 26 (Reuters) - The United States evacuated its embassy in
Libya on Saturday, driving diplomats across the border into Tunisia under
heavy military escort after escalating clashes broke out between rival
militias in Tripoli.
Security in the Libyan capital has deteriorated following two weeks of
clashes between brigades of former rebel fighters who have pounded each
other with rockets and artillery fire in southern Tripoli near the embassy
compound.
The violence is the worst seen in Tripoli and in eastern Benghazi since the
2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Western governments fear Libya is teetering
toward becoming a failed state just three years after the NATO-backed war
ended his one-man rule.
Three F-16 fighters provided air support and Osprey aircraft carrying
Marines flew overhead the U.S. convoy as a precaution, but there were no
incidents during the five-hour drive from Tripoli to Tunisia, U.S. officials
said.
"Security has to come first. Regrettably, we had to take this step because
the location of our embassy is in very close proximity to intense fighting
and ongoing violence between armed Libyan factions," U.S. State Department
spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.
U.S. sources familiar with the matter said there were about eight U.S.
diplomats and 200 or more U.S. security personnel in Libya and all had been
evacuated.
A Reuters reporter outside the embassy later saw no sign of movement or
personnel on the perimeter gate of the compound, which lies a few kilometers
from the airport.
Since one militia attacked Tripoli airport two weeks ago, fighting has
killed at least 50 people in the capital, shut down most international
flights and forced the United Nations and Turkey to pull out their
diplomatic staff.
Tripoli was quieter after the evacuation. But at least 25 people were also
killed in a day of clashes between Libyan special forces and Islamist
militants who are entrenched in the eastern city of Benghazi, security and
hospital sources said.
Speaking to reporters in Paris before holding talks on the Middle East, U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry described Libya's situation of "free-wheeling
militia violence" as a real risk to U.S. staff with clashes around the
embassy.
Britain's foreign office on Saturday also urged British nationals to leave
by commercial means, due to "ongoing and greater intensity fighting in
Tripoli and wider instability throughout Libya."
The battle for control of Tripoli International Airport is the latest
eruption in a rivalry among bands of ex-fighters who once battled side by
side against Gaddafi. Since then, they have turned against each other in the
scramble for control.
Since the 2011 fall of Tripoli, fighters from the western town of Zintan and
allies have controlled the area including the international airport, while
rivals loyal to the port city of Misrata entrenched themselves in other
parts of the capital.
SENSITIVE ISSUE
The State Department spokeswoman said embassy staff would return to Tripoli
once it was deemed safe. Until then, embassy operations would be conducted
from elsewhere in the region and Washington.
Security in Libya is an especially sensitive subject for the United States
because of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, in
which militants killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
The attack also brought political fallout for President Barack Obama, with
Republicans saying his administration did not provide sufficient overall
security, did not respond quickly to the attack and then tried to cover up
its shortcomings.
Ed Royce, Republican chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs,
told CNN on Saturday the administration needed to get "more engaged on the
ground with the factions in Libya" to help bring the violence under control.
"I think they're on the right track (now) but late into the game in terms of
trying to bring factions together and use U.S. leverage in order to try to
work this out," Royce said.
A Libyan militant suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack, Ahmed Abu
Khatallah, was captured in Libya last month and brought to the United
States. He has pleaded not guilty.
But three years after Gaddafi's demise, Libya's transition to democracy is
faltering, and its fragile government and nascent armed forces are unable to
impose authority over the brigades of former fighters.
Many ex-fighters on the government payroll as semi-official security forces,
but often pay little heed to the central government, each brigade claiming
to be a legitimate force and the successors of the 2011 revolution.
Heavily armed, they have sided with competing political forces vying to
shape the future of Libya in the messy steps since the end of Gaddafi's
four-decade rule.
Libya's Western partners fear the OPEC oil-producing country is becoming
increasingly polarized between two main groupings of competing militia
brigades and their political allies.
One side is grouped around Zintan and their Tripoli allies, the Qaaqaa and
al-Sawaiq brigades, which are loosely tied to the National Forces Alliance
political movement in the parliament.
Opposing them is a faction centered around the more Islamist-leaning Misrata
brigades and allied militias who side with the Justice and Construction
Party, a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. (Additional reporting by Bill Trott
and Phil Stewart in Washington, Arshad Mohammed in Paris; Editing by Gareth
Jones, David Gregorio and Lisa Shumaker)