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By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 22 May 2013:
Officials in Gharian have poured cold water on reports of an imminent clash between forces from . . .[restrict]the town and Zintan following the killing in Tripoli of two Ghariani brothers by a group of Zintanis.
“There have been no clashes between Gharian and Zintan,” Gharian Local Council spokesman Adel Ben Naji told the Libya Herald today, “What has been published on Facebook was not true at all.”
There were no clashes, Ben Naji said, because Zintan officials had condemned the killings saying that the killer did not represent the town or its people, just himself and that, in any event, he lived in Tripoli not Zintan.
The cause of the slayings was reported to have been an argument two days ago at a petrol station in Tripoli between a Ghariani man and a Zintani over who was at the head of the queue to put fuel into their vehicles. There was a punch-up which the Ghariani won. Having filled his vehicle he then drove off to the coffee shop in Siraj district where he worked with his two brothers but was followed by the Zintani. The latter is said to have then returned with five of his friends, also reportedly Zintanis, and opened fire on the three brothers, killing two of them. The third is said to be in hospital in intensive care.
It was reported that Gharian had given Zintan a deadline of today to hand over the alleged killers, otherwise Gharian militiamen would go in and seize them.
The Gharian spokesman said that the local and military council, as well as the towns’ the elders would issue a statement about the incident, calling on Libyans to stop publishing what he called “incorrect news”. [/restrict]
