Tripoli, 15 September:
Twelve more people are reported to have been arrested overnight in Benghazi in connection with Tuesday’s attack on the . . .[restrict]US mission and the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other US diplomatic staff. The arrests were made as a result on information obtained from four people arrested yesterday, Friday, a source connected to the investigation into the attack told the Libya Herald.
Earlier today, Saturday, a security official in Benghazi said that the Libyan authorities had identified 50 of the people who had taken part in the attack on the US mission.
Supreme Security Committee spokesman Abdel-Moneim Al-Hor said that they knew the names of the 50 but there may have been others involved.
He suggested that some may have escaped by plane from Benghazi airport to Egypt. All the names however had been given to Libyan border posts.
It is not known to which group those arrested overnight belong but the four arrested on Friday have been reported to be members of Ansar Al-Sharia. It has been accused of leading the attack on the mission, although it denies it.
On Friday, sources close to Prime Minister-elect Mustafa Abushagur said that a decision has been taken to disband the movement “by force if necessary”.
Meanwhile in Benghazi, increasing numbers foreigners are leaving because of the security situation, fearful for their safety.
“We have been evacuating foreign companies on their request,” the manager of a security company operating in the city told the Libya Herald today.
Many foreign consular diplomats have left and all the UN agencies in the city — the World Food Programme, UNHCR, WHO, IOM and UNSMIL —have scaled back their operations in the city. They have withdrawn international staff to Tripoli until the security situation is deemed calm enough to send them back — “hopefully in the next few days”, a UN official said.
Despite the fears, life in the city appeared perfectly normal today, with residents going about their everyday business, and shops and cafes operating as usual. [/restrict]
