CAIRO, August 16. /TASS/. The number of people killed as a result of clashes between armed factions on the southern outskirts of Libya’s capital Tripoli has risen to 27, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday citing doctors.

"The number of those killed in today’s clashes has risen to 27," the channel quoted the Libyan emergency medicine center as saying.

According to the report, 160 people have been injured in the violence. A total of 234 families were evacuated from violence-hit districts.

Previously, nine people were reported to have been killed and dozens injured.

Armed clashes sparked in Tripoli late on August 14 between the 444th brigade and the so-called Special Deterrence Force. According to local sources, the escalation was triggered by the detention of 444th brigade commander Mahmoud Hamza at Tripoli’s airport. Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA) Abdul Dbeibeh ordered the hostilities to be stopped. As the Libya Al Ahrar television reported later, elders of the Suq al-Jum'a district east of Tripoli handed over the commander to the chief of the GNA general staff at Mitiga Airport. According to the government’s plan, the issue of his detention was to be handled by an investigative commission later. However, as local television reported, gunfire and sporadic clashes in the capital continued even after the handover.

Currently, there are effectively two governments in Libya: the Cabinet in the East, formed by the parliament, and the Government of National Accord, led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, with headquarters in Tripoli. On June 22 last year, the interim period set by the UN and based on the Geneva agreements, expired. A president and a parliament were supposed to be elected by that time, but the elections, scheduled for December 2021, were canceled due to the lack of the necessary constitutional framework.

Libyan armed factions with ties to the rival political forces often directly confront each other. Such standoffs often result in numerous casualties.