Johannesburg – Fresh fighting has erupted between competing militias in the Libyan capital Tripoli with reports of two militiamen killed and five civilians wounded, one of them critically.
During the clashes heavy shelling damaged a number of houses in the west Tripoli suburb of Janzour on Sunday The Libya Herald reported that the fighting not only endangered the lives of civilians but also threatened the electricity supply after maintenance work on the nearby west Tripoli power station had to be halted.
The General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) also reported that an armed group had tried to break into the facility but were repelled by security forces.
Fighting in the neighbourhood first broke out last Thursday when a man from Wershefana, a town south of the capital and said to be supportive of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi, was caught stealing a car in Janzour. This led to clashes between Wershefana militia fighters and the Fursan Janzour (Knights of Janzour) brigade which lasted for two days until a tentative ceasefire was agreed to over the weekend.
During the lull the Libyan Red Crescent was able to move into the area and recover the corpses of those killed – the precise number of which was not given. However, despite the efforts of local elders and the short period of calm the fighting soon resumed.
Meanwhile, kidnappings in the capital continue unabated.
A television journalist, Ali Salem, was abducted in front of his Tripoli home on Sunday with the gunmen telling the man’s wife they wanted to investigate him.
Dr Abu Ghanem Baruni from Tripoli’s Al Masara Clinic was also kidnapped over the weekend. No further details of his Saturday abduction are known.
In another kidnapping on January 31, Sami Al Laafi from the Audit Bureau in Tripoli was said to have been abducted following his investigation into fake purchase orders for foreign goods. The Bureau alleged that his enquiries had produced an angry response.
“He was blackmailed and threatened during his investigation and now he is paying the price for his fight against corruption,” it wrote.
The Herald reported that in the 46 days from December 15 there had been 293 known abductions including 11 married women and 21 girls. There have also been 482 reported attacks on vehicles, 503 shootings leaving 23 people dead and the discovery of 118 unidentified bodies.
One of the corpses, which was discovered on Saturday in Tripoli was that of the commander of Janzour’s Mobile Forces. Emhemmed Azzabi was found dead in the Hadba district in what appeared to be an assassination. Azzabi’s militia, though from Janzour, is not part of the current fighting between the Wershefana and the Knights of Janzour.
Kidnappings are also taking place in other parts of Libya.
In Shahhat in the east a former General National Congress (GNC) member Fawzi Al Ogab was seized over the weekend. The circumstances of his abduction remain unclear.
There has also been no news of Kufra House of Representatives member Jibril Awhaidah, who was kidnapped in Tobruk, in the east of the country nearly a week ago. His kidnapping was said to be in revenge for his son’s alleged involvement in the disappearance of a member of the Obeidat tribe five years ago in Kufra, in south-eastern Libya.
Attempts at a reconciliation and investigation into that disappearance failed. The son went into hiding and in retaliation, his father was kidnapped.