Libyan army clashes with rebels at Tripoli airport

Published Sunday, December 11, 2011

Libyan rebels clashed with the Libyan military near the Tripoli international airport on Saturday wounding two.

The Zintan rebel group and the military offered conflicting reports of the firefight. The rebel group, which controls the airport, said that the military opened fire first, but he military denies the claim and said the rebels fired first.

Zintan rebels opened fire on the convoy from left, right and front ... They think that the army wants to take over the airport but this is not the case," said Army spokesperson Sgt. Abdel-Razik el-Shibahy.

A member of the Zintan group, Abu Bakr al-Ahrash, told AFP that "three cars from the national army arrived today at the checkpoint usually manned by Zintan revolutionaries" on the road to the facility.

"They confiscated two pick-up trucks loaded with anti-aircraft guns. They tried to take control of the checkpoint. They wounded two of our fighters and arrested two others," he said.

The Zintan rebels, who hail from a Western Libyan town, have been holding Muammar al-Qaddafi's son, Seif al-Qaddafi, since his capture in November.

Gunmen try to assassinate
head of Libyan army

The Libyan military said that this is the second assassination attempt by rebels of the Libyan military's commander General Khalifa Hifter. The military spokesperson said that rebels fired on Hifter's convoy twice on Saturday.

"Until now, we don't know anything about the Libyan national army. Who is in charge, where are the military bases, what is its chain of command or even how can rebels join it?" said Khaled el-Zintani, spokesperson for the rebel group. "On the ground, the so-called national army is nothing yet."

The Libyan army is promoting the disbanding of rebel groups and has requested that fighters enlist in the army.

(al-Akhbar, AFP, AP)

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Libyan military's commander General Khalifa Hifter.



Hifter/Hafter, Khalifa Belqasim - Another Libyan who has lived in the United States ever since the 1980s. He is believed to have strong ties with the CIA (13). There were rumors that he was killed in the fightings near Zawiyah, but I haven't heard any confirmation of that. Although it is strange that we haven't seen anything from him since NATO's coup. On the day of Gaddafi's death (Oct 20, 2011), his name appeared in an AFP-report (19), so he is still alive.

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