Gunmen keep Libya’s foreign ministry under siege

Around 30 vehicles, some mounted with anti-aircraft guns, and armed men have encircled the ministry since Sunday.

Placards calling for the adoption of a law aimed at political expulsions of Gaddafi-era officials hung on the gate of the ministry building.
“The ministry is closed,” Aymen Mohamed Aboudeina, part of a group of protesters, told AFP, adding that “talks will be initiated in the coming hours with the concerned ministries”.

He said the “siege” will be lifted when the protesters’ demands are met through a vote in the General National Congress — the highest political authority in Libya — on a bill calling for the expulsion of former regime employees.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan denounced the encircling of the foreign ministry and other attacks targeting the interior ministry and the national television in Tripoli.
He appealed to the people to support the government in resisting armed groups “who want to destabilise the country and terrorise foreigners and embassies,” but added that the government would “not come into confrontation with anyone”.

CNN reported that an explosion outside a police station in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Saturday morning caused severe damage to the building.
No casualties were reported in the early morning attack, which shattered several weeks of relative calm for the city’s residents, said the state news agency, LANA.

Over the past year, Benghazi, the birthplace of Libya’s 2011 revolution, has been the scene of multiple attacks targeting security forces.
Many of the attacks have been blamed on Islamist militants. On Friday evening, armed men attacked the headquarters of a government-affiliated militia in the city of Derna, about 200 kilometres east of Benghazi, killing one of its members, LANA reported.

After the attack, a car bomb with more than 50kg of explosives was found and defused. A car bomb exploded just outside the French Embassy in Tripoli early morning on Tuesday, April 23, injuring two French security guards and a Libyan girl.

Western intelligence sources believe that Islamist militant groups some with links to al-Qaeda are active in and around Derna. — AFP/CNN.