BENGHAZI (AFP) – Libyan authorities seized back control on Saturday of the headquarters and bases of armed militias in Benghazi after armed protesters attacked them overnight in violence that killed at least 11 people and wounded more than 70.
Six members of the security forces were among those killed in the unrest that rocked Libya’s second city, and were apparently “executed,” a medical examiner at the Benghazi Medical Centre morgue told AFP.
“From the nature of the wounds it is clear that the six were executed,” she said on condition of anonymity, addding that all six had been shot in the head.
“In total we’ve received 11 fatalities” she said, including four bodies in “civilian clothes” and another that was found at the headquarters of Raf Allah al-Sahati, an Islamist militia targeted overnight.
The violence erupted late on Friday when hundreds of protesters, some of them armed, attacked bases of paramilitary groups whose militants were former rebels who helped topple Muammer Gadhafi’s regime in last year’s rebellion.
Critics say the militias in the eastern city have put themselves above the law, particularly those groups who after the fall of the regime refused to be placed under the authority of the defence ministry.
The protesters first attacked a group based in a security building in central Benghazi before turning their wrath on the headquarters of Ansar al-Sharia, a radical Salafist militia and the main paramilitary group in the city.
To shouts of “The martyrs’ blood was not shed in vain,” the demonstrators pushed into the compound which was pillaged and torched, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
Regular armed forces retook control of those two bases on Saturday, the correspondent said.
Ansar al-Sharia has been accused of — but denied — involvement in the murder this month of US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11.
The militiamen took flight as hundreds of protesters stormed and then set their compound ablaze, and also evicted them from the city’s Al-Jalaa hospital where they were replaced by military police, an AFP correspondent reported.
Protesters also attacked the headquarters of the Raf Allah al-Sahati brigade, an Islamist group which is under the authority of the defence ministry, on Benghazi’s outskirts.
– Weapons, ammo and computers taken -
An AFP correspondent said the assailants walked away with weapons, ammunition and computers. After two hours of fierce fighting during which rockets were used, they managed to drive out members of the brigade.
On Saturday, Raf Allah al-Sahati said on its Facebook page that its militants had returned to their base.
Protesters also marched on four other militia bases overnight, forcing their occupants to flee.
As the violence expanded, Libyan authorities called on the demonstrators to distinguish between “illegitimate” brigades and those under state control, warning that the neutralisation of loyal units risked “chaos.”
The warning highlighted the dilemma facing the government a year after Kadhafi’s overthrow, with the fledgling security forces dependent on former rebels who fought in the uprising although such groups also challenge the government’s authority.
The trigger for the assault on the paramilitaries was a “Save Benghazi” protest after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday that was joined by some 30,000 peaceful demonstrators.
It drowned out a smaller rally attended by just a few hundred people called by the jihadists and hardline Islamists furious over a US-made film that mocks Islam and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by a French magazine.
Demonstrators paid tribute to ambassador Stevens and carried banners calling for justice to be done.
The two sides gave conflicting accounts of what sparked the deadly violence.
“We came peacefully and asked them with our loudspeakers to disarm,” said protester Nasser Saad.
But militiaman Ahmed Faraj insisted that the attackers were only after the base’s armoury.
“They were coming to take our weapons,” he said. “We are part of the ministry of defence, we fought in the revolution, we can’t just walk away and hand over heavy weapons to a bunch of drunks and criminals.”
“Now with the people calling for a hardline anti-militia policy, Libyan leaders may find themselves steeled with the requisite courage to purge these groups from the Libyan body politic,” said Libya specialist Jason Pack.
