A military push in southern Libya which strongman Khalifa Haftar says is aimed at rooting out "terrorists" and foreign fighters has sparked backlash from an ethnic minority and the UN-backed government. 

French warplanes on Sunday carried out air strikes to halt an armed group that entered northern Chad from Libya in a column of 40 pickups, the French military said, adding it acted at Chad's request.

Civilian rescue vessel Sea Watch 3, which was detained in Sicily on Friday, is the latest in a long list of such ships that have been forced or have chosen to stop their work.

Currently only the Libyan coastguard is able to save those migrants floundering in their attempts to reach Europe across the central Mediterranean. 

Libyan army spokesman Ahmed al-Mesmari denounced the attack on his country’s flag in Beirut last week when AMAL Movement supporters removed Libyan flags and replaced them with the Movement’s flag, the Saudi Okaz newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit on Sunday voiced regret over Libya’s boycott of Beirut’s Arab Economic and Social Development Summit.

The head of Libya's UN-backed government, Fayez al-Sarraj, urged the international community on Thursday to find a "common vision" for the chaos-hit North African nation, ahead of crisis talks in Sicily next week.

The head of Libya's U.N.-backed government, Fayez al-Sarraj, urged the international community to find a "common vision" for the chaos-hit North African nation, ahead of crisis talks in Sicily next week.

In an exclusive interview with AFP at his unity government's headquarters in Tripoli, Sarraj also hit out at "negative interventions by some countries" in Libya, without naming them.

Neglected by rival authorities in Tripoli and the country's east, Libya's southern desert has increasingly become a hideout for foreign rebel groups that stand accused of stoking growing insecurity.

Half a million children are in "immediate danger" in Libya's capital Tripoli due to fighting, the United Nations children's fund UNICEF said on Monday.

Clashes that broke out between rival militias in late August had killed at least 115 people and wounded nearly 400 by Saturday night, according to Libya's health ministry.

The Libyan capital's only working airport has come under rocket fire just days after reopening following a UN-backed ceasefire between rival armed groups vying for influence in the oil-rich country.