middle-east
BENGHAZI – A Libyan security official
on Saturday survived an assassination attempt by members of an Islamist
militia in the volatile eastern city of Benghazi, a security spokesman
said.
Gunmen opened fire on the car of Abdullah
al-Saiti, commander of the city's security operations center, while he
was travelling in central Benghazi, said Ibrahim al-Shara, a security
spokesman.
Saiti escaped unhurt, he said. The security
operations center is the top command of government security forces and
militias allied to the government in the eastern city.
On
Friday the government accused Islamist militants of the Ansar al-Sharia
group of killing nine Special Forces soldiers during an attack on the
city's security headquarters.
Jihadist gunmen stormed
the police headquarters before dawn Friday, sparking fighting that
killed at least nine soldiers and police, government and medical sources
said.
"Armed brigades of Ansar al-Sharia and other
criminal groups attacked the complex with both light and heavy
weaponry," a government statement said.
The jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia was placed on the US terror list in January.
It said nine Special Forces members were killed and that other soldiers and policemen were wounded.
Some attackers were killed or arrested, the statement said without elaborating.
Special
Forces intervened to try to evict the gunmen, triggering fighting
elsewhere in the eastern city that also wounded 24 members of the
security forces, the medical sources said.
An army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that four soldiers were missing.
The
officer said gunmen attacked the headquarters early on Friday. Blasts
and gunfire rocked the Mediterranean city for two hours from 0100 GMT,
witnesses said.
The officer said that four of the soldiers killed died as they were heading back to barracks after the fighting had subsided.
He said "tension" was running high among army units in Benghazi.
Another
security source said earlier the gunmen had been trying to seize a
vehicle packed with weapons and ammunition that the police had taken
from them.
Friday's violence comes just days after a
car bomb targeted a Special Forces barracks in Benghazi, killing two
soldiers and wounding three.
Benghazi was the cradle of
the 2011 uprising that ended Moamer Gathafi's four-decade rule and has
since been plagued by violence that has killed dozens of members of the
security forces, judges and foreigners.
The government
has been struggling to consolidate control in the vast and mostly desert
country, which is effectively ruled by a patchwork of local militias
and awash with heavy weapons looted from Gathafi's arsenals.
The lawlessness has also extended to the capital.
On
Tuesday, gunmen stormed the parliament building in Tripoli, forcing
lawmakers to postpone a vote for a new prime minister to replace
Abdullah al-Thani.
He quit in April after just five days in the job, saying he and his family had come under attack.
Thani
had been selected to replace Ali Zeidan, who was ousted by parliament
in March for failing to prevent a rebel oil shipment and end the
lawlessness in Libya.
Foreign missions have also been
hit, including the US consulate in Benghazi, which was stormed by
jihadists in September 2012, resulting in the deaths of the ambassador
and three other Americans.
As well as Al-Qaeda-inspired
violence, Tripoli authorities have had to contend with a revolt in the
east by former rebel militiamen demanding the restoration of the
autonomy the region enjoyed for the first 12 years after Libyan
independence in 1951.
The militia seized four key oil
terminals last July, launching a blockade that slashed Libyan exports
from 1.5 million barrels per day to just 250,000 bpd.
The
government struck a deal early last month to end the stand-off which
has cost it more than $14 billion (10.1 billion euros) in lost revenues
and was instrumental in Zeidan's fall.
The army has
retaken control of two of the four terminals and the OPEC oil cartel has
said it expects exports to recover to 1.0 million bpd by-mid June.
But negotiations are still continuing for the return of the other two.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق