Fighting continued in Sebha today as government forces supported by militias from Misrata retook the Temenhent air base from armed groups reported to supporters of the Gaddafi regime. Government forces captured 18 armed men from the air base, though fighting continues in and around Sebha, with government reinforcements posted outside the city ready to enter to support sympathetic forces inside Sebha. Eighty-eight people have been killed and 130 wounded in fighting in the region over the last two weeks. The fighting has overwhelmed local hospitals and led the International Committee of the Red Cross to express concern about the humanitarian situation in the Sebha.
Fighting erupted in Sebha erupted two years ago following the killing of the commander of the Sebha revolutionary brigade, Mansour al-Aswad, at the hands of Toubou militias from Murzuk. al-Aswad's killing apparently in retaliation for his role in the clashes between Toubou and the Arab Awlad Sulaiman tribe in Sebha in 2012. As fighting picked up in Sebha between Toubou and the Awlad Sulaiman, an armed group supposedly affiliated with the former regime seized control of the Temenhent air base on 15 Janurary. There is speculation that these militias were under the control of, or merely inspired by, Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi who is currently living in exile and under house arrest in Niamey, Niger. These identity of these shadowy Gaddafists remains a mystery, with some accusing the government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan of manufacturing them to divert attention from its own failures.
