Nurse wounded in artillery attack

Filipina suffers shrapnel wounds in Libya

MANILA – The Department of Foreign Affairs today confirmed earlier reports of a 60-year-old nurse who suffered shrapnel wounds in an artillery fire in the outskirts of Tripoli yesterday afternoon.

Embassy Chargè d’Affaires Elmer G. Cato said the nurse was wounded in the shoulder when an artillery round exploded outside the housing compound where she and other Filipino hospital workers were billeted.

He said the victim was the third Filipino casualty since the fighting between the UN-backed government and renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army.

The wounded nurse was not identified in the report.

Two other Filipinos had been wounded in rocket attacks in other parts of Tripoli during the early months of the fighting.

The Embassy earlier raised its concern over the possibility that Filipinos may end up collateral damage after several medical facilities in Tripoli have been struck by artillery shells.

Today, there are still more than 1,000 Filipinos in Tripoli and surrounding areas, most of whom are employed in hospitals. (Melo M. Acuña)