Hassi condemns Guba massacre, while top aide Bayou demurs.

By Libya Herald reporters.

Tripoli, 21 February 2015:

The antigovernment of Omer Al-Hassi has today condemned the Guba car bombings and called on . . .[restrict]all Libyans to stand together against “all forms of terror”.

However Hassi’s chief political adviser, Mohammed Bayou, has refused, during a TV interview, to decry the three suicide bombings in which 42 people died.  It would seem likely that, as reported in the Libya Observer, his reticence on the matter led to Bayou’s house in Benghazi being burnt down today.

The anti-government also insisted that the recent security incidents in Libya were plots, orchestrated by some Arab regimes to divide Libya.

Reference was made to an audio tape that appears to record Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi discussing intervention in Libya. A similar recording surfaced two weeks ago in which Sissi seemed  to make some deeply uncomplimentary remarks about some of his Gulf backers, including Saudi Arabia.

Condemnation also came from Misrata Council which declared its solidarity with the townspeople of Guba “against terrorism and terrorists”.  The councillors said that they were repeating their call “to stop fighting and listen to the voice of reason, uphold the national interest and band together to stop terrorism”.

They urged the UN to press on with the dialogue that would lead to the formation of a national unity government.

More footage emerged today of yesterday’s funerals in Guba, with a fast-moving crowd of mourners bearing a river of coffins down a street.

According to Libyan Air Force commander Saqr Geroushi, the death toll now stands at 46. Eight of the dead, he said, were Egyptians. Of the more than 80 wounded, 55 had been flown to the UAE for treatment. They had travelled in a specialised aircraft sent by the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed.  Today the Libyan government sent a formal notes of thanks to the UAE and to Egypt, for its help in evacuating the wounded. It also thanked those other countries which were backing it in its war against terrorism. [/restrict]