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Benghazi, 15 June 2013:
Benghazi’s Benina Airport reopened earlier this afternoon according to Libya FM TV. It was closed this morning following . . .[restrict]clashes between gunmen and army forces on the city’s Airport Road.
Meanwhile the authorities have announced that six soldiers were killed in the clashes. Five others were wounded.
The official spokesman of Benghazi’s Joint Security Room, Mohamed Hijazi, was reported by the Libyan news agency LANA saying that four members of the Special Forces (Saiqa Brigade) were killed in the city’s Laithi district by snipers belonging to the masked gunmen. They used light to medium fire arms to shoot against the special forces who went inside the residential district in pursuit of the gangs. The two other members of the Special Forces were stabbed to death by the gunmen as they made their way to work at the Special Forces headquarters on the Airport Road.
?The armed gangs had attacked a number of security bases, the spokesman stated, as well as equipment and vehicles belonging to the army. These comprised the military intelligence headquarters in the Sidi Hussein district, the headquarters of the First Infantry Brigade in Birkah, the Libyan Army Administrational and Organizational Headquarters, the former General Staff building in Hadaeq as well as the of the police headquarters in the Abu-Attni area. It had been set on fire, resulting in the destruction of its entire store of weapons, ammunition and military equipment.
Hijazi said that the Libyan army had last night withdrawn its personnel from its headquarters and camps in order to avoid any casualties among the civilian population. The gunmen fled in the early hours of Saturday morning after being put to flight by members of the special force.
There is no news about casualties among the gunmen.
The acting Chief of Staff, Salem Gneidi, has meanwhile called on the public to rally to the defend the army and the police.
It announced this afternoon that the Cabinet Crisis Committee was in session. However, former NTC deputy chairman Hafiz Ghogha who represented Benghazi on the council has called for Prime Minister Ali Zeidan to resign over his handling of the crisis. He said that the government was weak. It had a duty to protect the citizens of Benghazi and was failing to do so. Speaking on TV this afternoon, he added that the government should move to Benghazi. The city’s security was pivotal to the security of Libya, he said. [/restrict]
