At least 31 people were killed and almost 400 wounded in gun
battles between
Libyan militiamen and armed residents in Tripoli on Friday
in some of the worst street fighting in the capital since the
overthrow of former leader
Muammar Gaddafi.
Friday's bloodshed began when militiamen from the city of
Misrata opened fire on about 500 protesters who had gathered
outside the militia's headquarters, some of them carrying white
flags, to demand their eviction from the capital.
Tripoli local council leader
Sadat al-Badri told AFP that the militia fired at the
demonstrators from inside their headquarters.
A militia leader told private TV channel Al-Naba that the
demonstrators had opened fire first.
A Reuters reporter saw an anti-aircraft cannon firing from
the militia's gated compound into the crowd as protesters
chanted: "We don't want armed militias!"
Demonstrators fled but then returned, heavily armed, to
attack the compound, where the militiamen remained holed up
until early morning as fighting continued. Rocket-propelled
grenades could be heard.
Dozens of soldiers in trucks tried to separate the sides, and
sealed off roads to stop more people joining the clashes.
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 FRANCE
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The protest, organised by the local council, had been backed
by imams at Friday prayers and by Libya's mufti, the highest
religious authority.
'Armed groups must leave'
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan responded to the violence by
demanding that all militias "without exception" leave Tripoli.
"The demonstration was peaceful and had been permitted by the
interior ministry, and then the protesters were fired on when
they entered the Gharghur district," he said.
"The exit of armed groups from Tripoli is not something up
for debate but necessary and urgently needed," he told Reuters
TV and the Ahrar Libya channel in an interview.
But Friday's clashes underscored how overwhelmed the
country’s fledging military is in the face of the ex-rebels, who
have also shut down Libya's oil exports for months.
The militias are holdovers from the 2011 NATO-backed uprising
that ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi and are now a powerful
force in the increasingly lawless North African country. Two
years after the overthrow, former fighters from both sides are
refusing to surrender their arms.
Late into the night heavy smoke could be seen rising from the
scene in the Gharghur district, where many of Gaddafi's closest
collaborators used to live before the uprising.
A Reuters reporter saw the dead body of a girl, aged around
12, whose head had been almost blown off.
Libya's turmoil and the weakness of its border controls are
worrying its North African neighbours. France this week said it
was considering offering more
counter-terrorism training and aid to help Libya prevent
militancy spilling over its frontiers.
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THE
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The French intervention in neighbouring Mali this year drove
some Islamist militants with links to al Qaeda across the border
into Libya's lawless southern deserts, where the central
government has little or no say.
Inter-militia troubles
Friday's march was sparked by violence on November 7 in which
the Misrata Nosoor Battalian militia lost one its leaders, Nuri
Friwan, when he was fatally wounded in fighting at a checkpoint
manned by other ex-rebels.
Two other people were killed in fighting sparked by his
death.
On Friday, air force planes circled overhead during the
clashes. "We want to make sure the militias don't bring in any
reinforcements," said army spokesman Ali al-Sheikhi.
Pro-government militias set up checkpoints on the coastal road
outside Tripoli to Misrata to prevent fighters entering Tripoli.
So far, the capital has been spared the almost daily bombings
and killings that plague Libya's second city, Benghazi, in the
east. But when clashes between rival militias do break out, the
nascent armed forces are no match for them.
One Western diplomat said the situation was becoming
"increasingly critical," and the British, French, Italian and US
embassies issued a joint statement calling for Libyans to "put
aside their differences."
Strikes and armed protests around the country by militia and
tribal gunmen demanding payments or more autonomy have also shut
much of the OPEC member's oil output, depriving the government
of its main source of income.
The authorities have tried to defuse the threat of the
militias by placing them on the government payroll and assigning
them to provide security.
But the gunmen often remain loyal mostly to their own
commanders and fight for control of local areas, especially
their weapons or drug smuggling rackets, or to settle personal
feuds.
Zeidan was himself briefly abducted in October by a militia
group on the government payroll, underscoring the lack of both
security and authority in the country.
(FRANCE 24 with wires)
