Fighting sweeps across Tripoli after gunmen attack Libyan parliament

Fighting sweeps across Tripoli after gunmen attack Libyan parliament

PanARMENIAN.Net - Fierce fighting swept across the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Sunday, May 18, a short time after armed men stormed the country's interim parliament, CNN reported.

The violence appeared to be some of the worst since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi. At least two people were killed and 66 were injured, according to the Health Ministry.

State media LANA said that lawmakers had already left for the General National Congress when that attack happened as the session was over for the day. Armed men blocked the road that led to the parliament, LANA said, blocking members' access to their offices.

Some lawmakers went on Libyan TV stations to talk about the attack, saying that fighting erupted in the area around the GNC.

The attack involved members of powerful militias from the western mountain city of Zintan. But the al-Qaaqaa brigade, a Zintan militia based in Tripoli, issued a statement that it had "heeded the call of the homeland to save it from the abusing politicians ..."

Two other militias from Zintan reportedly took part: al-Madani and al-Sawaeq.

Libya is on "the brink of civil war," Col. Mukhtar Farnana, a prominent commander from Zintan, said in a televised statement, which he said was from the command of the self-declared Libyan National Army.

Farnana said Libya has arrived at this point because the GNC betrayed the people by aligning itself with what he described as "ideological gangs."

The work of the GNC will be frozen, and a committee elected to draft a constitution will take over some of its duties, he announced. It's unclear whether his orders will be enforced as other militias support the GNC.

"We announce to the world that Libya will not become a cradle or incubator for terrorism," Farnana said.

At a late night news conference, Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani described what happened Sunday as "dangerous and unfortunate."

"The government condemns the use of armed force as a means of political expression by all parties and calls for an immediate stop in the use of the military arsenal the Libyan people own, to stop using it to express political views and calls on everyone to come under the umbrella of legitimacy," he said, adding that there are "no real signs" linking what happened in Tripoli to the violence in Benghazi last week.

Libya's main political forces have been slowly reaching an intense divide along Islamist and liberal lines.

The more liberal parties, backed by the heavily armed Zintan militias, have accused the Islamists of hijacking power and controlling the government and parliament.

These militias have previously threatened to attack the GNC. Negotiations spearheaded by the U.N. Mission in Tripoli prevented an attack in February.

The violence in the capital came as the death toll rose over the weekend from intense fighting Friday to the east in and around Benghazi.

Libya's revolution left the country awash in weapons in the hands of various militias divided along regional, tribal and political lines that have competing agendas and affiliations.

Many of the militias fought the Gaddafi regime in 2011 and have refused to disarm and disband. Thousands more Libyans have taken up arms since Gaddafi fell.

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