UN-backed Libyan government forces use robot for explosives disposal

A member of the UN-backed government forces watches a robot working in southern Tripoli, Libya, on Sept. 15, 2020. The forces of the UN-backed government on Tuesday said they disposed of some explosives left by war in south of the capital Tripoli by using a robot for the first time. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua)

TRIPOLI, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The forces of the UN-backed government on Tuesday said they disposed of some explosives left by war in south of the capital Tripoli by using a robot for the first time.

"Using a robot for the first time in Libya, an amount of cluster bombs and explosives were detonated by the explosives teams of the interior ministry after collecting them from neighborhoods in southern Tripoli, which were freed from the fleeing terrorist militias of (Khalifa) Haftar (commander of the eastern-based army)," the UN-backed government forces said in a statement.

The eastern-based army and the UN-backed government of Libya had been in a deadly armed conflict for more than a year in and around Tripoli, before the government took over all of western Libya after withdrawal of the eastern-based army.

Libya has been plagued by a state of insecurity and political instability ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011.