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The Resistance Hub
Tripoli is once again in the crosshairs of conflict. A sudden wave of violence swept through the Libyan capital in early May after the assassination of a high-ranking militia leader, disrupting daily life and plunging neighborhoods into darkness—both figuratively and literally. For the city’s residents, power cuts, street battles, and checkpoints are the symptoms of a deeper struggle: a capital city where armed groups, not institutions, set the rules.
The clashes offer a grim reminder that Libya’s decade-long crisis has entered a new phase. Far from post-conflict stabilization, Tripoli operates under the precarious balance of irregular forces, temporary alliances, and contested sovereignty. This article explores the events of the latest clashes, their civilian cost, and what they reveal about the enduring dynamics of urban irregular warfare.
The Trigger: Assassination and Aftermath
On the evening of May 2, 2025, Mahmoud al-Dabashi—commander of the Al-Nawasi Brigade, one of Tripoli’s most powerful militias—was killed in a targeted ambush near the Sidi Khalifa district. While no group immediately claimed responsibility, accusations swiftly pointed toward a rival faction aligned with the Stability Support Apparatus (SSA), another major armed group formally under the Government of National Unity (GNU).
By dawn, the city had changed. Militia convoys roamed the streets. Gunfire erupted across several districts, including Tajoura and Ain Zara. Key roads were barricaded, and local residents began reporting widespread disruptions to electricity and water supplies.
What began as a targeted assassination escalated into a street-level confrontation between rival factions, each seeking to either avenge or capitalize on the death of one of Tripoli’s kingmakers.
Fragmented Authority: The Militia Patchwork
Tripoli’s so-called “security architecture” is not defined by state institutions, but by an uneasy coalition of armed groups. Since the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, successive governments have relied on militias to secure the capital. In return, these groups have gained autonomy, territory, and access to state funds.
Key players include:
- Al-Nawasi Brigade: Known for policing and intelligence roles within Tripoli.
- Stability Support Apparatus (SSA): A powerful rival with its own internal intelligence network.
- RADA (Special Deterrence Force): Another elite militia with ties to Islamist networks.
- Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade: Politically active and well-armed, often siding with the GNU but pursuing its own agenda.
The GNU claims to control these forces under formal mandates. In reality, they operate like decentralized fiefdoms—conducting arrests, running checkpoints, even managing prisons without central oversight. This lack of unity transforms political grievances into kinetic confrontations, often leaving civilians caught in the middle.
Civilian Impact: Infrastructure and Humanitarian Consequences
As the fighting intensified, ordinary Tripolitanians bore the brunt. Several substations were sabotaged or caught in crossfire, triggering citywide blackouts. Internet service became unreliable, further isolating residents in conflict zones. In areas like Fashloum and Suq al-Juma, families reported staying indoors for 72 hours straight, rationing food and water as clashes moved through their neighborhoods.
Hospitals, already under-resourced, began receiving casualties from stray bullets and mortar fragments. A UNICEF field officer described the situation as “a slow-burning humanitarian emergency” compounded by the fear of renewed siege.
This disruption wasn’t incidental—it was tactical. Militias frequently target infrastructure to paralyze rival areas and exert political pressure. Control of power grids, fuel depots, and transit chokepoints is as strategic as holding ground.
Patterns of Irregular Warfare in Urban Conflict Zones
What happened in Tripoli mirrors a broader trend in irregular warfare: the weaponization of civilian terrain. Militia forces operate in and around dense urban environments, using apartment blocks as staging areas, hospitals as rally points, and public utilities as leverage.
Key characteristics of this model:
- Asymmetry: Militia units deploy mobile teams using technicals (armed pickup trucks), drones, and encrypted communications to outmaneuver rivals.
- Denial-of-service tactics: By cutting electricity or blocking roads, militias reduce the operational capacity of enemy factions.
- Narrative warfare: Control of media and social networks is critical. Each faction seeks to dominate the information space—portraying themselves as defenders of stability while accusing opponents of terrorism or betrayal.
Similar dynamics have played out in other contested cities:
- Baghdad (2005–2009): Sectarian militias used water and power shutdowns to cleanse neighborhoods.
- Aleppo (2014–2016): Syrian regime forces and rebel groups engaged in siege warfare and infrastructure sabotage.
- Donetsk (2022–2023): Separatist groups and Russian units used public service control as a weapon of compliance.
Tripoli is now part of that lineage—a city contested not just by force of arms, but by the denial of normal life.
Political Consequences: GNU Under Pressure
For the Government of National Unity, these events are deeply destabilizing. Already lacking legitimacy in the eyes of many Libyans, the GNU faces increasing scrutiny for its reliance on militias it cannot control.
Statements from GNU officials were vague, calling for “restraint” while avoiding direct condemnation of any faction. This ambiguity reflects the state’s weakness: alienating one group could provoke further fragmentation or even a coup attempt from within.
Meanwhile, eastern-based rival government authorities in Benghazi, backed by Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), have used the chaos in Tripoli as a propaganda tool—offering “security and unity” in contrast to the capital’s lawlessness.
Any hopes for UN-mediated elections in 2025 are now further complicated. The perception of Tripoli as unstable makes it an unviable capital, and the idea of nationwide democratic contestation appears increasingly remote.
What Comes Next: Forecasting the Next Phase
The coming weeks will likely see a realignment of militia allegiances. Smaller factions will either be absorbed into dominant players or seek foreign backers to survive. Turkey, a key supporter of the GNU and several militias, may face pressure to intervene more directly or broker peace between its proxies.
At the same time, foreign intelligence services—including those from Egypt, the UAE, and Russia—are almost certainly monitoring the situation for opportunities to shift the balance in their favor.
The most dangerous possibility? A renewed east-west conflict that extends beyond Tripoli into Misrata, Zawiya, and the oil crescent. If militia warfare reactivates across Libya’s central corridor, the entire country could spiral into a multi-front civil war once again.
Resistance in the Shadows: Non-Military Responses
While much of the attention is focused on gunmen and drones, resistance in Tripoli is also occurring off the battlefield.
Civil society groups have mobilized to provide medical aid, power banks, and transport for families fleeing hotspots. Youth networks use encrypted apps to report militia movements and avoid ambushes. Independent journalists and bloggers are documenting abuses and mapping areas affected by the fighting using open-source tools like LiveUAmap and Twitter/X.
These networks are fragile—but vital. In the absence of reliable institutions, Tripoli’s civilians are learning to resist not just their oppressors, but the normalization of chaos. The future of Libyan governance may well depend on the resilience of these underground systems.
Conclusion
The May 2025 clashes in Tripoli are more than another chapter in Libya’s ongoing conflict—they are a mirror of the global struggle over sovereignty in the age of fragmented power. What happens when governments outsource control to irregular actors? How do populations adapt to violence as routine? And what does resistance look like when both state and anti-state forces fail to protect the public?
Tripoli remains a city suspended between revolution and ruin. But even in the dark, its people continue to endure—and resist.
Source List
- BBC News – “Deadly clashes erupt in Libya’s capital after militia commander killed”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa - Al Jazeera – “Tripoli militias clash following assassination; civilian areas caught in crossfire”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/05 - Libya Observer – “Mahmoud al-Dabashi reportedly assassinated in Tripoli suburb”
https://libyaobserver.ly - UNSMIL Press Release – “UN calls for restraint amid Tripoli escalation”
https://unsmil.unmissions.org - International Crisis Group – “Rebooting Libya’s Political Process”
https://www.crisisgroup.org - Small Arms Survey – “Mapping Armed Groups in Tripoli: Networks and Command”
https://smallarmssurvey.org - Human Rights Watch – “Civilians at risk: Infrastructure sabotage in Libya”
https://www.hrw.org - Reuters – “Turkey weighs response as Libya’s capital reels from renewed militia violence”
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa - LiveUAmap Libya Feed – Real-time geolocation and militia tracking
https://libya.liveuamap.com - Brookings Institution – “State Failure and Armed Actor Proliferation in Libya”
https://www.brookings.edu
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