At least 141 people, mostly soldiers in strongman General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, were killed Friday during an attack on an airbase in southern Libya, according to the militia’s spokesman.
Spokesman Ahmad al-Mismari told AFP the attack on the Brak al-Shati airbase was carried out by a militia loyal to the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli.
“The soldiers were returning from a military parade. They weren’t armed. Most of them were executed,” he said.
Other victims in the attack include civilians who work at the airbase and others who were just in the area, he said.
The GNA condemned the attack and denied any involvement. It promised to investigate the attack and said it would suspend Defense Minister al-Mahdi al-Barghati until those who are responsible are identified.
Rival militias have been vying for supremacy in Libya since 2011 when an uprising removed longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi from power.
The LNA refuses to accept the legitimacy of the GNA and instead supports a rival authority in the east.
The UN envoy to Libya voiced alarm at reports of the attack on the base, 650km (400 miles) 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,” the UN envoy, Martin Kobler, said.
Britain’s ambassador to Libya, Peter Millett, also denounced the assault. “Disgusted by the attack on Brak al-Shati and reports of mass executions. Perpetrators must be brought to justice,” he wrote on Twitter.
The incident at the base in Wadi al-Shati district took place 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.
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That attack was called off after a reconciliation meeting between Haftar and the head of the unity government, Fayez al-Sarraj, in Abu Dhabi on 2 May.
The speaker of the eastern-based parliament, which is supported by the LNA, accused the Misrata-based Third Force of a “serious breach of the truce agreement reached in Abu Dhabi”. Aguila Saleh said there were a “number of martyrs” in LNA ranks, without giving a figure.
The speaker said he had given orders for the armed forces “to take the measures necessary to respond to the assault and defend the south and cleanse it of all outlaw militias”.
In Tripoli, the GNA called for an immediate ceasefire in the south where tribes and militias vie for control of lucrative smuggling routes with neighboring Chad, Niger and Sudan. “We hope reason will prevail and that the escalation and provocation will stop,” it said.
The unity government’s defense ministry laid the blame on “those who started bombing Tamenhant base with warplanes and tanks,” referring to Haftar’s forces.
Elsewhere 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 the eastern city of Slouq, according to medical and security sources.
