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By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 8 December 2013:
Confusion reigns over the reported appointment of an army brigadier as the new military governor . . .[restrict]in Derna. As a result of the reports, the town today saw an end to a week of protests demanding greater police and army presence and the withdrawal of militias.
Speaking to LANA news agency today, Brigadier Ahmed Al-Shelawy confirmed earlier reports of his appointment as the troubled town’s military head. He told the news agency he would be relying on the people of Derna and its revolutionaries to help him on his mission to maintain security there.
However, the spokesperson for the Chief of Staff, Ali Al-Sheiki, told the Libya Herald that Shelawy had simply been recalled to Tripoli on a routine summons and that reports of his appointment were false.
“He has not been appointed”, Sheiki said. “He has only been summoned to Tripoli and he has not yet arrived. People heard this news and assumed that he would be made governor. Derna belongs to the Jabal Akhdar military district in the east, and Derna itself is not an administrative area.”
The Chief of Staff’s office did confirm, however, that Abdul Majid Ahmed Zeidan had replaced Colonel Omar Al-Hasnawy as military governor in Sirte in a routine reassignment.
The announcement comes just two days after Colonel Salah Buhulaiga, the commander of the Zawia Martyrs’ Brigade, the state’s strongest armed force in Sirte, was killed in a car crash. [/restrict]
