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By Saber Ayyub and Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 8 August 2015:
At least four pro-Qaddafi protestors were reported killed yesterday in Sebha yesterday, allegedly . . .[restrict]by members of Misrata’s Third Force backed by a local force, named as the Bahir Eldeen brigade. It is also reported by a local resident that a number of other demonstrators were wounded in the incident.
The protestors were again demonstrating against the death sentences passed by a court in Tripoli last week on Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi, Abdullah Senussi and seven other prominent members of the former regime.
It is alleged that yesterday’s demonstration, in Sebha’s Jadid district, started peacefully and that the Third Force opened fire on the without provocation. This has not been confirmed. Other reports, however, claim that the protestors were armed.
Demonstrations started in Sebha almost as soon as the sentences were announced and despite warnings from the municipal council and the Third Force that they would be dealt with severely, have been growing in strength.
According to the local resident, who claimed he was opposed to the protests, yesterday’s demonstrators, waving green former regime flags and put at several hundred, were largely made up of Magarha and Qaddadfa tribe members. However, it is also reported that anger at the lack of security and power, rising prices and the growing chaos in the town have also played a part in rallying support for the Qaddafi era.
In Bani Walid, green-flag waving demonstrators also turned out yesterday for what they called a “Friday of Anger” at the death sentences. Numbers appear to have been fewer than in Sebha but there were some among men among them. There were also, for the first time, women, children among the protestors, with with men wearing the green military uniforms.
“We’re fed up with being afraid,” a resident from Bani Walid told the Libya Herald. “Now it’s time to make clear that our town and its residents are still sticking to the leader (Qaddafi) and his sons,” he added.
“ We completely reject and refuse the ruling of a court controlled by militias and criminals,” he said.
Bani Walid, some 200 kilometres south east of Tripoli is the hometown of the large Warfala tribe which from the start of the revolution supported the Qaddafi regime.
A small protest by women against the death sentences was also said to have taken place yesterday in Sirte. Reports that the women were shot at by Islamic State forces have not been confirmed. [/restrict]
