RAS AJDIR: Tunisia closed its main border crossing with Libya on Friday after thousands of stranded Egyptian and foreign nationals, fleeing militias’ fighting and violence in Libya, tried to break through the passage, the Tunisian news agency said.

It was the second eruption of unrest at the border in as many days, as thousands of Libyans stream into neighbouring Tunisia, along with foreign nationals. Tunisia is the only escape route as fighting escalates in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, where rival militias have been battling for weeks for control over the airport. Friday’s unrest took place when thousands of Egyptians, barred from entering Tunisia because they had no visa, held a protest then broke through part of a fence at the Ras Ajdir crossing, Tunisian security officials said.

The police responded by shooting in the air and firing tear gas.

A reporter at the crossing said no one managed to make it to the other side and security forces used vehicles to physically block access. After a Tunisian police officer was wounded by gunfire from the Libyan side of the border, authorities closed the crossing, the official Tunisian news agency TAP said.

A day earlier, two Egyptians were killed during a similar protest demanding to be let through. Tunisian officials say thousands of Libyans have been crossing the border each day the past week. Libya is witnessing its worst factional violence since the downfall of the longtime dictator Moammar Qadhafi in 2011 civil war. Along with the fighting in Tripoli, which the Health Ministry said has killed 214 people and wounding more than 980 others, Islamic militias the past week overran army bases in Libya’s second largest city, Benghazi, and claimed control of the city. On Friday, a powerful explosion ripped through the main police headquarters in Benghazi, nearly flattening it, witnesses said. The blast shook nearby houses and echoed across the eastern city. The headquarters had been empty because of earlier shelling by militiamen. Friday’s blast appeared to be from explosives planted inside the building, said witnesses at the site.

Police officials in Benghazi, could not be reached for comment. The spiral of violence in the country’s two main cities prompted calls for public protests Friday against militias. “It’s time for a popular uprising to rescue Libya,” said Abdel-Moneim al-Yassir, a lawmaker in the outgoing parliament and head of its National Security Committee.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2014