By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab and Aimen Eljali
Tripoli, 5 November 2013:
There were a number of clashes in Tripoli last night, the most serious . . .[restrict]being in two different areas of Suq Al-Juma, east of the city.
The first occurred in the district’s Al-Ajeelat street when members of the local deterrent force, the Quwat Al-Rada, went to arrest an alleged drugs dealer. According to local sources, there was a shootout with the alleged dealer being killed. As a result, members of his family and his friends responded by attacking a power plant and setting vehicles on fire. No one else was hurt.
Last month, the local police station was set on fire in a similar incident after the Quwat Al-Rada shot dead another man whom they claimed was a drugs dealer.
The second, potentially more serious, clash occurred in the early hours of the morning at a checkpoint on the roundabout by the planetarium near Shara Al-Shat. A vehicle driven by Nuri Friwan, the commander of the Misrata Nosoor Battalion, based in Suq Al-Juma, was stopped by checkpoint guards. According to SSC commander Hashim Bishr, an argument developed which ended with Friwan being shot in the foot.
Members of his militia arrived shortly afterwards and started shooting at the guards, firing RPGs and using heavy anti-aircraft guns. Remarkably, no one was killed although three guards were injured.
A truce was eventually mediated by local elders and Friwan was air-ambulanced to Tunisia. The three checkpoint guards were taken to the clinic at Mitiga airbase.
A third clash happened when one of Tripoli’s battalions raided a rest house of a citizen in the Tripoli district of Ain-Zara ended up with the arrest of the person in question. [/restrict]
