Militias agree to leave Tripoli

Armed groups that have been controlling Tripoli for more than a decade have agreed to leave Libya's capital. Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi – part of the internationally recognised government – said after lengthy negotiations a deal had been struck for regular forces to police Tripoli. BBC News reports that he told journalists there would only be emergency police, city officers and criminal investigators in their place. The deal comes after a series of deadly clashes in the city in recent months. Libya is currently divided between the internationally recognised government in the west, led by interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli, and an administration in the east run by military strongman Khalifa Haftar. Trabelsi said the militia's place was now ‘in their headquarters’, adding that the government ‘will use them only in exceptional circumstances for specific missions’.