By Maha Ellawati.
Benghazi, 17 October 2013:
Reports that the police station in Benghazi’s Fuwaihat district was bombed early this morning are untrue, . . .[restrict]according to Benghazi Joint Operations Room spokesman, Abdullah Zeidi. There was a explosion, he said, but the target was buildings at a plant nursery, ownership of which is disputed.
No one was injured in the attack, Zeidi added.
This was not the first time the nursery has been targeted. There have been two previous reported bombings, but on each occasion the premises were rebuilt.
It is reported that the present occupant took over the site some years ago and the original owners, from whom it was taken by Qaddafi’s infamous Law No. 4, now want it back.
The current willingness to see every security incident as being much more dramatic than the actual reality is seen as a result of a continued reluctance of the authorities to inform the public about what is happening.
Last week, when the Prime Minister was kidnapped, it was believed in Benghazi that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen had said that if he were not released within 15 minutes NATO would “lay waste” Tripoli. This paper this paper had to reassure those who contacted it that the rumour was nonsense and that NATO could not make such a threat.
Similarly, when militants were killed at an Ansar Al-Sharia camp near Sirte this week when a vehicle transporting explosives blew up, it was widely reported it was the result of a US drone attack.
Drone attacks are regularly reported although there is no evidence of any since the revolution. [/restrict]