Some 300 Bangladeshi workers stranded in fighting between the internationally recognized Libyan government in Tripoli and its rival Libyan National Army (LNA), have been rescued and relocated in safe camps in the capital, Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli confirmed yesterday.

“At least 300 Bangladeshi workers have been rescued from Tripoli and its’ surrounding areas and kept in safer camps with the help of the Libyan Red Cross and Bangladeshi recruiters,” Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli on Thursday informed journalists.

Ashraful Islam, first secretary of Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli, said that there was no causality of Bangladeshi due to this conflict.

Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli also

sought the assistance of the Libyan Red Cross to ensure the safety of Bangladeshi migrant workers.  “There is an instruction that if any Bangladeshi in Libya wants to return home from the conflict torn zone, the embassy should arrange for it free of cost,” the official said, adding, “So far, 12 Bangladeshis have wished to go home. We are making the process to send them home.”

According to the Bangladesh embassy in Libya, a total of 20,000 Bangladeshis are now staying in that country.

A fierce battle took place in Tripoli at the recent times as Libyan national army attempted to capture the capital and adjacent areas.

The Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, started a military offensive, “Operation Flood of Dignity” to occupy the western region of Libya and eventually the capital Tripoli held by the UN Security Council-recognised Government of National Accord.

AFP adds from Tripoli: The death toll from rocket fire on the Libyan capital Tripoli, blamed by the UN-recognised government on strongman Khalifa Haftar, climbed to six as thousands more civilians fled the violence.

The latest bombing came as world powers wrangled over the wording of a UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire, with Russia blocking criticism of Haftar, according to diplomats.

Three of the six killed in the rocket fire on the southern Tripoli neighbourhoods of Abu Salim and Al-Antisar late on Tuesday were women, said the UN’s humanitarian coordination agency, OCHA.

Abu Salim mayor Abdelrahman al-Hamdi confirmed the death toll and said 35 other people were wounded.

AFP journalists heard seven loud explosions as rockets hit the city centre, the first since Haftar’s Libyan National Army militia launched an offensive on April 4 to capture Tripoli from the government and its militia allies.

The LNA blamed the rocket fire on the “terrorist militias” whose grip on the capital it says it is fighting to end.

UN envoy Ghassan Salame condemned “in the strongest terms” the overnight shelling, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.