Libyan police say guards were unable to prevent the prisoners escaping as they feared for their own lives

TRIPOLI, Libya – Some 400 detainees escaped after a riot on Sunday, September 2, at a prison in the southern suburbs of the Libyan capital Tripoli, theater of a week of deadly battles, police said. "The detainees were able to force open the doors and leave" as fighting between rival militias raged near the prison of Ain Zara, police said in a statement, without specifying what crimes the escapees had committed. Fierce clashes erupted last week between the Seventh Brigade, or Kaniyat, from Tarhouna, a town 65 km (40 miles) southeast of Tripoli, against the Tripoli Revolutionaries' Brigades (TRB) and the Nawasi, two of the capital's largest armed groups. Most detainees at the prison have been convicted of common crimes or were supporters of former dictator Muammar Gadaffi, found guilty of killings during the uprising that toppled his regime in 2011

According to a health ministry toll, at least 39 people have been killed and some 100 injured since clashes, including rocket fire, broke out among rival militias Monday in suburbs south of Tripoli. The U.N.-backed government based in Tripoli declared a state of emergency in the capital “given the seriousness of the current situation.”

Although the government is formally in charge, it does not control the capital where armed groups are allied to it but operate with autonomy, often motivated by money and power. The Libyan capital has been at the centre of a battle for influence between armed groups since Gadaffi's fall and killing. Separately, a missile fell on Sunday on the al-Fallah camp for displaced Tawergha people, killing two and wounding seven, including two children, said Emad Ergeha, an activist following Tawergha issues. "Most of the families have left the camp fearing more rockets," Khaled Omrane, a camp resident, told AFP.
Around 400 prisoners, mostly supporters of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, escape from a detention facility in Ain Zara, near Tripoli, amid fighting between rival militia groups.