A spokesman for a rogue Libyan general says his forces have attacked parliament to arrest Islamists there, but were met with resistance. Mohammed al-Hegazi, a spokesman for General Khalifa Hiftar, made the comments to Libya's Alahrar television station after heavy gunfire erupted Sunday outside the Libyan parliament. Lawmakers say security officials evacuated them from the building.
Lawmaker Omar Bushah told Reuters gunmen had entered the General National Congress (GNC) and set the building on fire.
A security official said the attackers also shelled a nearby military base controlled by an Islamist militia. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
Hiftar is carrying out an offensive against Islamist militias in Benghazi, the country's second-largest city in the east. He says the authorities have no mandate and vowed to press on with his operation. Authorities have called it a coup.
Libya: Heavy gunfire heard south of Tripoli - reports
Heavy gunfire could be heard in Libya's capital Tripoli on Sunday, residents said, according to Reuters. The target of the gunfire, coming from anti-aircraft weapons and rocket propelled grenades, was not immediately clear.
Local television station al-Nabaa said clashes had erupted in the south of the capital, without giving details.
The gunfire came after more than 70 people were killed on Friday in clashes between irregular army forces and Islamist militants in Benghazi, the main city in the volatile east.
Tripoli has been spared the sort of violence seen in Benghazi, but more than 40 people were killed in November during clashes between militias and armed citizens.
At least 79 people were killed and 141 others wounded in fierce clashes in eastern Libya between armed groups loyal to a rogue ex-general and Islamist militias, a health ministry official told AFP Saturday. Giving the latest toll of Friday's unrest in Benghazi, the official, Abdallah al-Fitouri, said those wounded had been taken to five hospitals in the area. An earlier count had 37 dead and 139 wounded.
On Saturday Libya's military banned flights over the eastern city of Benghazi, a day after troops loyal to Gen. Khalifa Hifter attacked the militias, authorities said.
The North African nation's weak central government already described the offensive Friday by Hifter, which included military air support, as tantamount to a "coup". And as militiamen reported a separate helicopter attack on one of their bases on Saturday, the violence again showed how precarious government control remains after the 2011 civil war that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
In a statement, the Libyan military's central command said it will target any military aircraft flying over Benghazi, where the country's uprising against Gaddafi began. The city's airport remained closed Saturday for a second day, though stores reopened.
Libya's army declares no fly zone over Benghazi
The Libyan army has imposed a no fly zone over Benghazi Saturday in a direct challenge to forces that have been using airpower to press a campaign against Islamist militants in the city. Retired General Khalifa Haftar, who lived in exile in the United States before returning home to lead ground forces in the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, now commands what he calls a "National Army".
On Friday his paramilitary force, backed by warplanes and helicopters, pounded Islamist militiamen in Libya's second city and fought pitched battles with the former-rebels, AFP reports.
Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani denounced Haftar's forces as "outlaws" and called on all parties to observe restraint.
But Haftar vowed to press his war against Islamists, who are blamed for attacks that have killed dozens of members of the security forces, judges and foreigners since the end of the uprising in October 2011.
"The operation will continue until Benghazi is purged of terrorists," he told Libya Awalan television.
Armed forces chief of staff, Abdessalam Hadallah al-Salihin, has denied any army involvement in the Benghazi clashes, though he admitted that some officers and army units had defected to join Haftar.
Later Haftar's spokesman, Colonel Mohammad Hijazi, called on people living in the western Benghazi district of Guwersha and Sidi Fradj in the South to evacuate their homes.
He did not say if this was the prelude to attacks on those neighborhoods, which are known Islamists bastions.
The army's high command upped the ante by declaring all of Benghazi and its suburbs a "no fly zone until further notice," state-run Lana news agency said.
"All military planes flying over the city will be shot down by army units... and units of the revolutionaries (ex-rebels)," it said.
It was not clear though if the army actually has the means to carry out that threat, which came as local sources said mediation was underway to try and prevent new fighting in Benghazi.
The health ministry said 37 people were killed and 139 wounded in Friday's clashes in Benghazi, cradle of the revolution that toppled and killed Gaddafi.
A precarious calm reigned in the port city on Saturday.
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