Libya’s two largest cities were rocked by violence on Sunday with clashes between militias wounding five in the capital and a car blast hurting three policemen in Benghazi.
Rival armed groups battled it out for more than 12 hours in a central residential area of Tripoli. The clashes centred around Zawiyah Street and frightened residents into taking up arms and setting up makeshift checkpoints.
“Five people have sustained gunshot wounds in these clashes,” a medical official at Zawiyah Street Medical Center said, adding there had been no fatalities.
Photo: AFP
The fighting came as the country’s new authorities try to empower the national army and police, but struggle to rein in armed militias born out of last year’s conflict that toppled long-time dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Some residents said the incident was sparked by a case of kidnapping and torture, while others said locals had armed themselves and tried to kick out a militia because it was selling drugs and alcohol.
Ali Mohammed, an armed resident manning a makeshift checkpoint on a small side street, said: “Things are not clear. We are trying to protect our streets at this stage.”
Another resident said the clashes pitted men from the neighborhood against a militia holed-up in a building which once housed the country’s former intelligence headquarters.
Street battles and score-settling between rival groups are not unusual in the capital, which is still awash with weapons left over from last year’s conflict.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of last year’s rebellion, a car exploded outside a police station on Sunday slightly wounding four police officers, according to the official LANA news agency.
The blast occurred before dawn, destroying the entrance of the building, unhinging a door and shattering windows, an Agence France-Presse photographer said. The facades of nearby shops were also damaged.
Security is by far the most urgent issue that the next government, which is due to be sworn in on Thursday, must tackle in order to achieve its mandate of organizing elections on the basis of a new constitution within a year.
The general assembly, the country’s highest political authority, which was elected in July, grasped its own vulnerability lastweek when protesters barged into a session and gunmen occupied the premises for more than 24 hours.
The security situation is precarious in the oil-rich nation where inter-communal tensions and rivalries that surfaced during last year’s civil war often along deeply entrenched tribal and regional fault lines.
The nascent national army and police force remain outgunned by a patchwork of militias made up of former rebels, who have been co-opted with varying degrees of success by state authorities.
Many former rebels distrust the police and army and accuse the authorities of failing to purge them of members who played a role in upholding Qaddafi’s repressive regime.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese