BENGHAZI: Eight people were killed and 15 wounded on Monday, when fighting broke out between the Libyan army and militants in the eastern city of Benghazi, medical sources said.
Libya is in protracted turmoil, three years after the Nato-backed war that ousted Muammar Qadhafi, with Islamist, anti-Islamist, regional and political factions locked in conflict.
The Ansar al-Sharia militant group attacked a camp belonging to army special forces, residents there said talking about the recent clash.
Among the eight dead, at least five were soldiers, according to a hospital official who requested anonymity.
Forces of a renegade army general Khalifa Haftar fighting Islamists later joined the battle, using combat helicopters, they added.
Helicopters took off from Benghazi's Benina air base, where regular military units have joined Haftar's campaign which began last month, residents said.
“Irregular forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar supported the army as fighting spread to other parts of Benghazi,” said his spokesman Mohamed al-Hejazi.
Haftar wants to purge the North African state of Islamist militants, a problem he says the weak central government has failed to control.
The government, rival militia brigades and political factions have rejected Haftar's offensive against militants as an attempted coup after his forces also stormed parliament a week ago.
Ansar al-Sharia, listed as a terrorist group by Washington, warned the United States last week against interfering in Libya's crisis and accused Washington of backing Haftar.
Qadhafi’s one-man rule, followed by three years of unrest, have left Libya with few functioning institutions and no real national army to impose authority on the competing militias and brigades of former rebels who have become power-brokers.
Earlier, the acting prime minister, Abdullah Al-Thinni, refused on Wednesday to hand over power to a newly elected premier.
The OPEC oil producer now has two prime ministers and a parliament deadlocked by splits between factions.
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