Landmines spell silent threat in Libyan former war zone

The smell of gunpowder still lingered in the battle-scarred south of Libya’s capital when Hicham Suleiman, a teacher in his 50s, cautiously returned to his home.

He left his car some 400 metres (yards) from his house and continued on foot, anxious about booby traps hidden by retreating forces, like the one that days earlier had killed his neighbour.

Only the sound of Suleiman’s footsteps broke the silence in the Tripoli outer suburb of Al-Khalla, which until several weeks ago had been a battlefront for more than one year.