So was getting rid of Gaddafi a good idea?

Libya's tribal clashes leave 105 dead Libya is still awash with arms following the conflict last year that toppled Muammar Gaddafi Continue reading the main story
Recent tribal clashes in western Libya left 105 people dead and some 500 injured, the government has said.

Government spokesman Nasser al-Manaa said there had been no fighting in the mountainous area since Monday, following the deployment of the army.

The area includes the towns of Zintan, Mizdah and Shegayga, some 150km (90 miles) south of the capital Tripoli.

The week-long clashes were seen as a test for Libya's new government, which has struggled to assert its authority.

The fighting was mainly between fighters from Zintan, backed by another tribe known as the Guntrara from Mizdah, and armed members of the Mashashya tribe based in Shegayga, the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says.

Tensions date from the Gaddafi-era, when one tribe was given land expropriated from another, our correspondent says.

The latest clashes were triggered by the death of a man from Zintan after he was stopped at a checkpoint, which Zintan militias have blamed on the Mashashya tribe.

The ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), which took power last year, has been trying to maintain stability in a country awash with weapons left over from the conflict last year.

The violence comes just weeks before the country is due to hold elections for a national assembly, the first free poll in decades

28 June 2012 Last updated at 10:32 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page


At least 12 people have been killed and more than 40 wounded in a series of car bomb attacks in Iraq.

Reports say the attacks happened in and around Baghdad, with at least eight people killed when a car bomb exploded outside a market in a mainly Shia district of the capital.

A dawn car bomb also targeted a government building in the nearby predominantly Sunni city of Taji.

June has been a particularly violent month in Iraq.

Nearly 200 have now reportedly been killed there since 13 June alone, far higher than the figure for May.

Hospital and police sources said Thursday's car bomb at a market in the predominantly Shia Muslim district of Washash had killed at least eight people and wounded 30 others.

The blast in Taji, some 12 miles (20km) north of Baghdad, killed four and wounded 20, police said.

There are also unconfirmed reports that a police patrol and a roadblock manned by militamen trying to prevent al-Qaeda attacks were targeted.

Most of the recent attacks have targeted the majority Shia community and have been blamed on Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq.