A spokesman for east Libyan armed forces said on Friday that as many as 141 people had been killed a day earlier in an attack on a southern air base, and the head of Libya’s United Nations-backed government suspended his defense minister pending an investigation into the incident. The Third Force militia, which is loyal to the United Nations-backed government of national accord in Tripoli, attacked the airbase held by military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, on Thursday. Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), said 103 of those killed in the attack at the air base were LNA troops, most of them from the 12th Brigade stationed there. They were attacked by a brigade from the western city of Misrata known as the Third Force, which previously controlled the base and is nominally aligned with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. Local and LNA officials have said that some of those killed were civilians who appeared to have been summarily executed. Human Rights Watch cited a medical official, an eyewitness, and photo and video footage to say that attacking forces had killed “scores of LNA fighters, some with bullets to the head, in apparent acts of summary execution.” U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler called the attack unprovoked and vicious, saying it “must not push (Libya) into further, serious conflict.”

GNA Prime Minister Fayez Seraj announced that he was suspending both defense chief Mahdi Al-Barghathi and Third Force commander Jamal Traiki, “until it is determined who was responsible for violating the cease-fire.”

He condemned the escalation at Brak Al-Shati “in the strongest terms” and called for an immediate cease-fire.
The death toll from an attack on a Libyan National Army-controlled airbase in southern Libya reportedly rises to 140 people.