Forces loyal to the late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi have launched a series of attacks across several cities, killing seven fighters who helped topple the former regime, officials and residents said.
The violence on Monday came as Libya’s new leaders struggle to stamp out lingering resistance from pro-Qaddafi forces and try to unify a deeply fractured country after eight months of civil war and more than 40 years of authoritarian rule.
The attacks were spread out and took place in the western city of Bani Walid, the capital Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi, the city where the uprising against Qaddafi started nearly a year ago. It is not clear if the attacks were coordinated.
Violence broke out first in Bani Walid, where pro-Qaddafi fighters have long tormented Libya’s revolutionaries.
Mahmoud al-Warfali, a spokesman for the revolutionary brigade in Bani Walid, said at least four of his fighters were killed in the city, which was one of the last former regime strongholds to fall to revolutionary command.
He said up to 150 pro-Qaddafi fighters were engaged in the street battle, using rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s. He said they managed to raise the green Libyan flag of Qaddafi’s regime at the northern gate of the town.
“These are Qaddafi remnants who tried to take over the city,” al-Warfali said. “They have tried to do this before and take over the interim government’s office, but thank God we have been able to fight them off.”
Tthree fighters were killed late on Monday by pro-Qaddafi forces in Benghazi, field commander Abdel-Basit Haroun said.
Abdel-Rahman al-Soghayar, a commander from the new regime in Tripoli, said shooting also took place in several neighborhoods of the capital on Monday evening, forcing people to remain indoors and stores to close early. He blamed the gunfire on “sleeper cells” loyal to Qaddafi who he said are attempting to take advantage of the fighting in Bani Walid. There was no word of casualties.
The attacks are the latest breakdown in security, three months after Qaddafi’s capture and killing.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the