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By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 22 October 2014:
Tripoli was gripped by disorder today as armed gangs seized four people and the unoccupied Egyptian . . .[restrict]embassy on the Corniche, attacked and ransacked in an assault by at least ten weapon-mounted vehicles.
The kidnappings began in the morning when the local Red Crescent Secretary Nasser Mohammed Daou Al-Alwani was grabbed in his office in Shara Haiti. Witnesses claimed that he had been detained by security forces from Tajoura. In an immediate protest at the abduction, Red Crescent workers stopped work. Also this morning, Hay Andalous councillor Hossa Tantosh was seized from the local council building by armed intruders.
This evening kidnappers were again at work. Reliable sources say that a journalist, who has not yet been named, has been abducted. Meanwhile at around 8pm, more armed men snatched Colonel Saleh al-Qadiri, a Libyan army officer working for protocol. He had been drinking coffee with a friend in the Sariya Café on Martyrs’ Square.
The most spectacular event of the day, however, has been the attack on and the looting of the Egyptian embassy. Witnesses said that at least ten “technicals” bearing the markings of Misratan and Suq Al-Juma militias stormed the building, smashing down the front gates and shooting their way through the front doors. There were later reports of firing within the elegant building which was formerly the home of the Libyan Crown Prince. The attackers were still in the building late this evening.
It is believed that the raid was in response to reports that Egypt has been giving more assistance to Libyan forces targeting Ansar Al-Sharia in Benghazi. Egypt, in concert with the United Arab Emirates, is assumed to have been behind air attacks on Libya Dawn forces in and around Tripoli. [/restrict]
