By Noora Ibrahim and Ayman Amzein.
Benghazi, 29 November 2013:
A small “gelatina” bomb was thrown into a major pro-Saiqa, anti-Ansar Al-Sharia demonstration . . .[restrict]in Benghazi today, injuring a number of protestors. The demonstration was the biggest the city has seen this year, with numbers estimated at over than a thousand.
The bomb attack appears to have had the effect of bringing even more people on to the streets, with angry residents joining the protest as news of it spread. Saiqa forces also turned out to protect the demonstrators.
Waving banners in support of Saiqa and against Ansar Al-Sharia, the protest started outside the Tibesti Hotel following afternoon Asr prayers, at around 4.45 pm. There was then a march in the area which drew in more demonstrators and which finally ended up back at the Tibesti.
“There were lots of fresh faces among the crowd” one demonstrator said. “There were young people and old ones too, women as well as men.”
Chanted slogans against both Ansar, calling it evil and demanding it be ejected from Benghazi, and the deteriorating security situation in the city, the demonstrators called for the police and the army alone to be in charge of security in the city. All other militias should be expelled, they said. They further said they were good Muslims and understood their faith – a pointed rebuff to extremists who have tried to portray the bulk of Libyans as being ignorant of Islam or actively un-Islamic.
There was also pointed criticism of the city’s Congress members who were accused of not standing with the people of Benghazi in the current crisis.
Three days ago, a number of Benghazi civil society organisations forced their way into a meeting in the city between military officials and a delegation of Congress members and demanded that three Benghazi congressmen, Mohammed Busidra, Sulaiman Zubi and Saleh Joudah, be thrown out of the room.
Today’s demonstration tailed off at about 9 pm.
There are conflicting reports as to whether the man who threw the device had been arrested.
The demonstrators were not intimidated either by the news that two Saiqa members had been shot earlier in the afternoon after leaving Friday prayers. A source close to the security services told the Libya Herald that they were in a critical condition in hospital.
The two have been named as Ahmed Hamad Al-Fakhri and Abdurrahim Al-Awami.
The source also said that a Benghazi policeman had been killed in a separate incident today. Details are not yet available. [/restrict]
