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Tripoli, 6 December:
The Libya Herald has been informed that the prime minister has objected to Wednesday’s story, “Ali Zeidan . . .[restrict]attacked in Beida”, claiming that the report was exaggerated.
In the report, the Libya Herald said that a local militia, the Ali Hassan Al-Jaber brigade stormed the building in which he was due to meet members of Beida Local Council, and reportedly smashed his vehicle.
The report also quoted a local security official, Captain Mayouf Ali, explaining that the milita was angry at Zeidan for not going “to public squares and contemplating the plights and problems facing citizens [and instead] holding secret meetings in farms and private homes.”
The story caveated that “whether or not Mayouf’s account fully explains the militia’s actions, what is certain is the depth of resentment felt in certain parts of eastern Libya that their concerns are being ignored by the central government.”
It transpires that the protesters were objecting to the meeting’s location, but not because it was remote. The building was reportedly used by Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi when he was in Beida, and it was this to which the group objected.
The men were not armed, and the situation was not serious, the source continued. There has been no confirmation as to whether Zeidan’s car was attacked or not. [/restrict]
