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Militias battle it out in Libyan capital
Published Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Rival militias engaged in a gun battle near office buildings and a five-star hotel in the center of the Libyan capital on Wednesday, underscoring how volatile the country still is three months on from Muammar Gaddafi's death.
A Reuters reporter said exchanges of both heavy and light weapons could be heard coming from the Tripoli district of El-Saadi beach, a stretch of Mediterranean coast overlooked by office skyscrapers and the Marriott Hotel.
Ambulance sirens could be heard and plumes of smoke rose from the area of the fighting, which had continued for at least 40 minutes.
Interior ministry forces had blocked a one kilometer section of road alongside the beach, but they did not appear to be intervening. Two militia pick-up trucks, with anti-aircraft guns on the back, were seen driving past towards the fighting.
An interior ministry official said the fighting was between militiamen from the city of Misrata, and units from Zintan. Both groups fought to oust Gaddafi and now are using their military power to underwrite a campaign for influence in the new Libya.
"There are two groups fighting," said the official, Naji Awad, who was monitoring the battle from near the Marriott Hotel. "Misrata controls a police academy building up the road and they are fighting with Zintan. We do not know why they are fighting," he said.
Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) is struggling to impose its authority on the country and form a functioning national police force and army.
Western intervention into the Libyan uprising last year brought with it an influx of weapons, many of which are now in the hands of rogue militias unwilling to relinquish their new found power.
Heavily-armed militias have carved the country into local fiefdoms and their fighters, though they express loyalty to the NTC, answer only to their own commanders.
Several militias from outside the capital have set up bases in Tripoli. They clash with each other intermittently often because of disputes over who controls which neighborhoods of the city.
The violence on Wednesday was the first time in weeks that a major gun battle had broken out in the center of the capital.
(Reuters, Al-Akhbar)
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