By Seraj Essul.
Tripoli, 4 December 2013:
Heavy rain dampened the fourth day of protests in Derna this evening,though it did not deter . . .[restrict]bombers who let off five devices, one in the Scout base at Jbaila. There are as yet no reports of any injuries.
Following the pattern of the last few days, the demonstrators gathered in the Sahaba mosque for afternoon prayers. However less than 100 of them set off down Al-Jaish Street, toward the spot near the end, where four of their number were gunned down on Monday by Ansar Al-Sharia militiamen.
The chants were once again for the government to provide police and army to take over security. In his Tripoli press conference earlier in the day, the Prime Minister had promised that such forces would be sent, but he gave no specific timeframe for their deployment.
Schools and banks and some government offices continued to be closed as workers continued their strike to back calls for the government to take over security.
A Derna resident told the Libya Herald this evening that since Tuesday’s confrontation with Ansar Al-Sharia, none of the militant group had been seen in the town. Nor had the Army of the Islamic State of Libya resumed its nighttime road blocks and members of the Abu Selim brigade had also stayed outside the city.
The demonstrator shot in the stomach on Tuesday was discharged from Hareesh hospital today. However the Ansar Al-Sharia guard, set upon and stabbed by angry demonstrators yesterday, before he was rescued by other protestors, remains in the hospital’s intensive care unit. [/restrict]
