Explosions were heard over the Libyan capital Tripoli early on Monday after unidentified war planes were heard flying over an area where militias have been fighting for control for over a month, residents said. However, none of the militias are believed to own war planes.
A Libyan TV channel said planes targeted positions in Tripoli, Reuters reported. Although Tripoli residents claimed to have heard several explosions, the city was quiet afterwards. As the cause of the explosions remains unclear, government officials could not be reached for comment.
Three years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, militias from the city of Misrata and fighters allied to the western town of Zintan again traded gunfire in parts of Tripoli on Sunday as part of growing chaos in the oil producing nation.
Libya's fragile efforts towards democracy are close to chaos since Gaddafi's rule ended, with a month of fighting in Tripoli and Benghazi further polarizing the political factions and their militia allies.
"Libya's weak government has no functioning national army and almost no control over Tripoli, with most officials working from Tobruk in the far-east where the new parliament has set-up to escape the violence," according to Reuters. "Most of the fighting has raged over the international airport in Tripoli, which fighters from Zintan have controlled since sweeping into the capital during the 2011 war."
With fears of the country sliding into the threat of civil war, the militia battles have forced the United Nations and Western governments to evacuate diplomats. The new U.N. special envoy Bernardino Leon, who is due to start his job officially on Sept. 1, said he was aiming to end fighting and might travel to Tripoli as early as this week.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Mission in Libya said in a statement on Sunday that it "deeply regrets that there was no response to the repeated international appeals and its own efforts for an immediate ceasefire."
