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By Aimen Majed and Maha Sulaiman.
Benghazi, 20 December 2014:
The arrival of cooking gas in Benghazi today saw long queues at suppliers . . .[restrict]but also men threatening each other with guns and shooting into the air in a bid to obtain it.
Bottle gas has been almost unobtainable in eastern Libya for several weeks. The price has risen from around the standard five dinars a bottle to between LD 120 and LD 150.
In the city’s Hay Al-Salam district today, a number of desperate residents fired into the air, threatening each other as they tried to get hold of gas bottles. No one was injured and some people managed to obtain bottles, but the incidents forced the suppliers to close. It is reported that they will reopen tomorrow providing there is adequate security.
Otherwise, the city was relatively quiet for much of the day – unlike yesterday when a number of army members were reported killed. In Sabri, three soldiers were shot, allegedly by Ansar Al-Sharia snipers, when they started to take sand bags elsewhere. In another incident, an explosion at the Suq Al-Arab is said to have killed others, although there has been no independent confirmation. [/restrict]
