By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 26 November 2013:
No decisions were made about security in Benghazi at last night’s meeting there between the Prime . . .[restrict]Minister and top military officials. Ali Zeidan had flown to Benghazi following yesterday’s clashes between the army’s Special Forces Saiqa Brigade and Ansar Al-Sharia.
“Zeidan simply supported the army with words, saying that an attack on the army was a dangerous matter,” spokesman of Benghazi Joint Security Room (BJSR) Ibrahim Shara told the Libya Herald.
The Prime Minister did not make any proposals or offer practical or financial help, Shara said, stressing that nothing new had been discussed.
The meeting was attended by government officials as well as the Chief of Staff, Major-General Jaddalah Obaidi, Benghazi security leaders including Saiqa commander Wanis Bukhamada and Commander of the Air Defence helicopter squadron Abdel Nasser Bousnina, and elders.
It took place at the same Benina airbase where a fortnight earlier the Prime Minister had briefly flown in to meet Bukhamada and Bousnina and discuss the security crisis in the city. Those talks had also failed to come up with concrete proposals.
Despite the lack of government help, the BJSR was working with “all its available potential” to provide security and safety to the city’s residents, declared Shara.
Meanwhile it emerged today that Monday’s clashes resulted in more deaths and injuries than has so far been announced. This newspaper has been informed that at least 14 people were killed and over 52 injured.
A source at Al-Jalaa hospital said it had treated more than 23 wounded members of the Special Forces and that a further seven were dead on arrival.
At Benghazi Medical Centre, which treated civilians fighting alongside Saiqa, another seven were pronounced dead on arrival while 25 were treated. Of these, four had been operated on yesterday and three today.
Four less seriously wounded men were being treated at the Hawary hospital. [/restrict]
