Rival Libyan Militias Clash in Tripoli Killing Two

Two people were killed and 29 others wounded in deadly clashes between rival Libyan militias in Tripoli sparked by the death of one of their leaders, the health ministry said Friday.

Libya has been plagued by deadly unrest since NATO-backed rebels toppled the regime of now slain veteran dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Libya's new authorities have pained to impose law and order as many of the ex-rebels have banded into militias and carved their own fiefdoms in a country awash with weapons looted from Gadhafi's arsenal.

The latest fighting erupted following news that militia chief Nuri Friwan died Thursday of injuries incurred at a checkpoint manned by a rival group in Soug al-Jomaa, in eastern Tripoli.

Witnesses and security officials said intense fire and explosions rocked several parts of the capital overnight and could be heard well into the early hours of Friday.

To avenge Friwan's death, armed members of the Misrata militia drove to the Soug al-Jomaa district in vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft guns, blocking the main road to the area, witnesses said.

A health ministry spokesman said the fighting killed two people and wounded 29 others, but that most of those hurt had left hospital after receiving first aid.

Several buildings were hit by anti-aircraft fire during the fighting, including the 15-storey Radisson hotel which is used by diplomats and businessmen.

An AFP correspondent saw the impact of bullets on the facade and windows that had been shattered.

A spokesman for the hotel said none of the guest or staff was hurt.

"The hotel's security services told us to go down to the basement where we spent most of the night," a representative of an international organization caught in the crossfire told AFP.

"And today it is as if nothing happened," she said.

Another hotel guest said at the height of the fighting: "We are being terrorized. Many windows were shattered."

A security source said many of the shots were fired, by both sides, into the air as a show of force.

From 1:00 am (2300 GMT Thursday) a relative calm descended punctuated by intermittent gunfire.

The ex-rebels that overthrew and later Gadhafi were hailed as heroes for bringing an end to more than four decades of dictatorship.

But many of these militias have rejected demands by the new government to turn in their weapons or join the national security forces, posing a constant threat to the country's stability.