Libya

Tunisian authorities have arrested 12 people they suspect are linked to the Sousse beach hotel attack on foreign tourists, and are hunting for two men who trained in a Libyan jihadist camp with the Sousse attacker, an official said. 

EU foreign ministers formally approved June 21, the launch of the first phase of a military operation against people smugglers in the Mediterranean, officials said.

Turkey's Tekfen Holding has stated that its construction unit, Tekfen ?n?aat, has opened a case at the International Court of Arbitration of The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) against the Libyan Man-Made River Authority (MMRA) and the state of Libya, over its losses in the country since 2011. 

Notorious Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar has been killed in a US airstrike in Libya, the strife-torn country's internationally recognised government said in a statement June 14.

Tunisia's foreign ministry said on Friday Libyan militiamen stormed the Tunisian consulate in Tripoli and took 10 employees hostage, the AP reported.

The ministry said in a statement it denounced the intrusion of an armed group in the offices of consulate and the detention of 10 staff of the mission. The ministry didn't identify the armed group.

Libya's warring factions began crunch talks June 8 as world leaders called for "bold political decisions" to prevent the oil-rich nation crumbling into a failed state.

The United Nations plans to host on June 8 in Morocco a new round of talks among Libya's warring factions in an effort to end a conflict that threatens to break up the oil producer. 

The corpses of 17 migrants were brought ashore in Sicily aboard an Italian naval vessel on May 31 along with 454 survivors as efforts intensified to rescue people fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. 

A pre-dawn suicide attack in northwest Libya May 31 claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) killed five members of the Fajr Libya militia alliance that controls the capital, a militia spokesman said.

Libya's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) affiliate took control of a civilian air base in the central city of Sirte, a militia spokesman and an ISIL statement said, in the latest gains by the extremist group exploiting Libya's lingering chaos.