Tripoli, 14 April:
The Libyan air force began on Thursday morning to take over of the headquarters of the former Military Academy . . .[restrict]for Girls, located in Tripoli’s Omar Mukhtar Street.
The buildings had been used since the liberation of Tripoli last August as the headquarters of the Saadoun Swehli brigade from Misrata headed by Faraj Swehli. The brigade earned a certain notoriety last month when it refused government calls that it hand over two British journalists it was holding there.
The spokesman for the Chief of Staff, Colonel Ali Al-Sheikhi, told the media that the process of the taking over the buildings was being carried out by a committee of air force officers and that they had started their duties at the academy.
The buildings themselves, with balaclava-wearing brigadesmen standing outside in seemingly defiant posture, glaring at the traffic passing by, had come to be regarded in recent weeks as almost a throwback to the Qaddafi period: a place of threatening power.
Today, driving past, the gates were open wide and there were no guards outside.
With the handover of the academy, Tripoli International Airport remains the only major location in the capital not in full government control.
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