CRPF Contingent Evacuated From Libya After Crisis Worsens: Sushma

This update from Swaraj came after Libyan militias clashed with a a rival army commander Khalifa Haftar in Tripoli.

Swaraj said with this, India has rescued all the six Indians who were abducted by ISIS in September 2015 in Libya. 

(Photo: Reuters)

The Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Sunday, 7 April said that the India Embassy in Tunisia has evacuated the entire contingent of 15 CRPF personnel on the day before as the situation in Libya got heated up.

This update from the minister came after Libyan militias clashed with rival army commander Khalifa Haftar’s forces in Tripoli.

The CRPF contingent, Swaraj said, was deployed as a peace-keeping force in Tripoli.

She also tweeted out helpline numbers for Indians in distress in the country.

The self-styled Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar ordered his forces on Thursday to take over the capital, Tripoli which is the seat of the UN-backed government. This move could potentially trigger another civil war.

Fighting was underway Sunday at the international airport, some 24 kilometres (15 miles) from central Tripoli, after Haftar claimed to have seized the area. The airport was destroyed in a previous bout of militia fighting in 2014. Haftar said his forces had launched airstrikes targeting rival militias on the outskirts of Tripoli.

The rival militias, which are affiliated with a UN-backed government in Tripoli, said they had also carried out airstrikes, slowing Haftar's advance.

At least 23 people, including civilians, have been killed on both sides since Thursday.

Since the civil uprising of 2011 that ousted and killed Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has slid into chaos and frequent spasms of violence. Dozens of militias operate in the country since Gaddafi’s death.

(With inputs from AP)