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Nine civilians dead as Haftar’s forces attacks Tripoli

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A man walks as he checks his destroyed house after an airstrike launched by Khalifa Haftar forces in the Tajoura area, east of Tripoli, Libya June 15, 2019. REUTERS/Hazem Ahmed

The air force of Libya’s eastern-based army on Saturday targeted a military store of the rival UN-backed government in the eastern part of the capital Tripoli, killing nine people and damaging a nearby hospital, authorities said.

All the nine people killed are civilians, including two women and a child, said the Health Ministry’s spokesman Fawzi Wanis.

The army said the airstrike was “accurate and targeted the largest ammunition store belonging to the militias (government forces).”

The army, led by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, has been leading a military campaign since early April to take over Tripoli, where the UN-backed government is based.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the fighting so far killed 653 and injured 3,547 others.

Libya has been struggling to undergo a transitional period amid chaos since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

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