Libya people-trafficking kingpin assassinated: media

TRIPOLI - A former head of Libya's coastguard, who was known as a key trafficker of people and fuel, was killed by unknown assailants, local media has reported.

Major Abd al-Rahman Milad, also known as Al-Bidja, was killed Sunday in the town of Sayyad, 25 kilometres west of the capital Tripoli, near the Janzour Naval Academy that he commanded, officials told local media.

Images circulated on news websites and social media showing a bullet-riddled white four-wheel drive on the side of a road, with the body of a man inside it.

Media outlets did not offer any details on the assailants' identities, political affiliations or motivations.

Milad, 34, had gained notoriety as a local kingpin in smuggling operations, trafficking everything from migrants to petrol.

Libyan authorities arrested him in October 2020, before he was released the following April and later named as the head of a unit of the coastguard tasked with combatting illegal migration.

An Interpol red notice was issued against him in June 2018 following a UN Security Council decision sanctioning six heads of migrant trafficking networks in Libya.

Abdallah Allafi, of Libya's Presidential Council, vowed in a Facebook post that the perpetrators would "not escape divine punishment".

Allafi hails from Zawiya to the west of Tripoli, and serves as the deputy head of the Presidential Council, a body that brings together the three main regions of the war-torn North African country.

Libya has been wracked by divisions and conflict since the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of former president Muammar Gaddafi, with two rival administrations vying for power in the country's east and west.

Khalid al-Mishri, who is also from Zawiya and heads the High Council of State, called for an investigation into the death of a "man who has always played a mediating role between rival factions" in Zawiya.

Mishri's election as the head of the High Council of State - a Senate-like body based in Tripoli - was contested by outgoing chief Mohamad Takala.

Amid the chaos that has gripped Libya over the past decade, the country has become a key launching pad for migrants mostly travelling from sub-Saharan African countries to seek better lives in Europe.

Zawiya, 45 kilometres west of Tripoli, has been both a departure point for migrants, as well as lying close to a major oil refinery, placing it at the heart of trafficking operations.

The refinery is controlled by armed groups who often clash, resulting in civilian deaths.