A shocking and graphic video obtained by Times of Malta shows the reality of a civil war in Libya, Malta’s southern neighbour.  

The video, filmed on Wednesday in south Tripoli, illustrates the latest failed attempts of strongman Khalifa Haftar’s troops to capture the capital.

It shows a truck full of Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) fighters being bombed after they were flushed out of an area called Gasr Ben Gashir, by the UN-backed Government of National Accord militia.

After the LNA fighters are spat out of the truck and on to the street, snipers pick them out individually, leaving them lying on the road, apparently dead. 

Haftar’s army, supported by thousands of Russian mercenaries and backed by France, the UAE, Jordan and Egypt, has been trying to gain control of Tripoli for over a year but is now largely retreating. 

Last year Malta became involved in the conflict, after it seized $1.1 billion of an unofficial currency minted in Russia and en route to the African country. 

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced from their homes in the conflict in a country that is a major departure point for migrants attempting to reach Europe.

In March, Malta closed its ports, stopping all those rescued from the Mediterranean sea from entering, with exceptions made only for children, some families and pregnant women. 

Last month dozens of rescued migrants and several dead bodies were returned to Libya in an Armed Forces of Malta-sanctioned pushback, despite the UN warning Libya was not a safe port.

A magisterial inquiry later absolved Prime Minister Robert Abela and the AFM of all wrongdoing.

In the testimony given to the inquiry, a captain of one of the ships bringing supplies as part of the covert operation described how Libyan government forces told him to turn his vessel’s lights off, to avoid being hit by a rocket.