TRIPOLI: Sudan has denied supporting any of the warring militias in Libya after forces there seized a Sudanese airplane that was loaded with ammunition.

 

A statement Saturday from Libya’s government, recently empaneled by the country’s newly elected parliament, accused Sudan of supporting “terrorist groups” in Libya with weapons from the aircraft. They said the move “breached its national sovereignty.”

 

“We call on the Sudanese authorities to stop interfering in the political affairs of Libya and not to have bias toward any of the conflicting parties,” the statement published on the Cabinet’s official Facebook page said.

 

Alsawarmi Saad, a spokesman of the Sudanese armed forces, told local television channel al-Shorouk Saturday night that the plane was meant to supply joint Libyan-Sudanese forces operating on the country’s shared border.

 

Libya is witnessing the worst bout of violence since its 2011 civil war saw longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi ousted and killed. Rival groups backed by heavily armed militias fight for political power. 

Around 12 people were killed and 10 wounded in a flare-up of clashes between rival armed groups near Tripoli, a doctor said Sunday.

 

An alliance of armed groups called Operation Dawn, mainly from the western city of Misrata, seized the capital Tripoli last month after expelling a rival group from Zintan.

 

Tripoli has been largely quiet since then but fighters from the Operation Dawn have been trying to capture the tribal Warshefana area southwest of the city, residents said.

 

The Warshefana are allied to the Zintani forces.

 

Residents reported heavy shelling in the city Saturday, which was confirmed by British Ambassador Michael Aron. “City is quiet. Families out on seafront last night. But shelling of Warshefana areas clearly heard,” Aron tweeted during a visit to Tripoli Saturday.

 

A hospital doctor said around 12 people were killed and 10 wounded in the shelling of Warshefana residential areas. He said gunfire could still be heard Sunday, although it was not as heavy as the day before.

 

Western diplomats and the United Nations have pulled out of Libya to escape the violence. The weak central government and the country’s elected parliament have moved to Tobruk in the remote east.

 

Libya’s neighbors and Western powers worry the oil producer will turn into a failed state as the government has no real army or police to tackle dozens of armed groups roaming around the country unchallenged.