(1 Aug 2014) Hundreds of people gathered in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday to protest against militias in-fighting in the country.
They waved Libyan tricolour flags while clapping and chanting against militias, and women had a strong presence at the protest.
Militias have held sway in Libya since emerging from the 2011 civil war that led to the ouster and death of Moammar Gadhafi.
The central government, police and military have been struggling to maintain authority.
Fighting has been escalating in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, where rival militias have been battling for weeks for control over the airport.
Along with the fighting in Tripoli, which the Health Ministry said has killed 214 people and wounding more than 980 others, Islamic militias the past week overran army bases in Libya's second largest city, Benghazi, and claimed control of the city.
The battles have destroyed parts of Tripoli's international airport, and shelling earlier this week hit three oil depots, sparking a raging fire that firefighters have struggled to put out amid the continued fighting.
The battle in Tripoli began earlier this month when Islamist-led militias, also known as 'Shield' - mostly from the western city of Misrata - launched a surprise assault on the airport, under control of rival militias from the western mountain town of Zintan.
Speaking in Tripoli on Friday, a spokesman of the Shield militias, Mohamed Al-Gheryani, said Tripoli International Airport was "besieged from all sides."
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