[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Monday accused militias in Libya of committing war crimes [press release] during a battle that has been ongoing since July. Libya Dawn Alliance, led by militias from Misrata, and a coalition of militias from Zintan have been fighting for control over Tripoli’s airport. Thousands of people have fled their homes [JURIST report] as the militias have seized and destroyed property. HRW stated that both sides appear to be committing violations that amount to war crimes, seizing people and destroying property. A report [PDF] by the UN last week stated that 100,000 people have been displaced by the violence and a further 150,000 have left the country.

Libya remains politically unstable three years after the 2011 uprising and subsequent civil war that deposed former dictator Gaddafi. Last month UNSMIL released a statement that recent violence between Libyan political factions has been alarming and unprecedented in its gravity [JURIST report]. In a May briefing to the UN Security Council, International Criminal Court [official website] Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda [official profile] said that Libya faces a deep political crisis and serious security challenges [JURIST report], inhibiting its ability to rebuild itself as a modern democratic state. Last August the US Department of Justice [official website] filed criminal charges [JURIST report] in the deadly attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The sealed complaint was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] against an unspecified number of individuals.