(UPI) — The World Health Organization said Thursday that 205 people have been killed, including 18 civilians, and 913 injured in two weeks of fighting in Libya.
WHO’s Libya Twitter account posted the update of casualties since fighting broke out near the capital, Tripoli, and said it was sending medical specialists “to support front-line hospitals,” who are “helping perform dozens of surgeries.”
The violence broke out April 4 when a Libyan military commander, Khalifa Haftar, launched an assault to take over Tripoli. It’s part of a military conflict with insurgent fighters that’s been going on since 2014.
The conflict escalated Tuesday night when shells slammed a densely populated district, as part of Haftar’s forces’ assault to take Libya’s capital from an internationally backed government, WHO said.
At least five civilians were reportedly killed and several others injured in the rocket fire Tuesday night in the Abu Salim district of Tripoli.
More than 24,000 people from 4,870 households have been displaced by the clashes, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a situation report Wednesday.
The U.N. refugee agency says it has evacuated nearly 180 migrants from a detention center close to the area of fighting. People relocated from the Abu Salim center, including women and children, were among its most vulnerable detainees.
The United Nations said it has grave concern for those still in the facility.
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