Libyan rival militias fight each other in Tripoli

Militia men burned a former intelligence building, a facility used last year as a site to organize armed groups a stray bullet hit the nearby Tripoli central hospital frightening the patients and doctors acxcording to the London daily Al Quds Al Arabi.

According to an Interior Ministry source, troops from the ministry’s Capital Forces came under attack when they went to arrest Mohamed Al-Warfali during the night at the former intelligence building in Tripoli’s Shara Al-Zawia. The brigade, which he commands and which was technically part of the SSC, had occupied the building for some months.The Libya Herald reported.

At least eleven people were reported killed and injured by sources in the Interior Ministry  in fighting today in central Tripoli’s Sidi Khalifa district when forces moved to arrest a renegade commander of the Supreme Security Committee (SSC), suspected of planning an armed attack in the city. Mohamed Al-Warfali and eleven of his men were arrested.

This is the latest episode where former revolutionaries appear to hold greater power than the state and highlights the challenges in their reintegration.Meanwhile the head of the self-proclaimed Cyrenaica Transitional Council’s military wing, Hamid Al-Hassi, narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Benghazi.One of his bodyguards was killed. Therearea growing number of targetted assasinations, particularly in Benghazi.