By Moutaz Ahmed.
Benghazi, 16 May 2104:
A gunman tried to murder prominent Benghazi photographer Abdulla Doma this morning. He told the Libya Herald that he had just flown back from Tripoli and was getting out of his car in front of his house when he heard a gun being loaded. He jumped aside just in time, he said. Thirty-two bullets hit his vehicle.
He had been in Tripoli to discuss press safety with the Ministry of Media. He said he had received threats from anonymous sources following the distribution of photos taken by him of the attack on the Security Directorate on 2 May. The attack in which at least nine people died, has been blamed by the government on Ansar Al-Sharia.
This is the latest in a ever-growing list of attacks on journalists and other prominent figures in the city not militarily involved.
On 5 May, a reporter with Libya Ahrar TV, Hassan Bakoush, likewise survived an attempt to shoot him while he was in a vehicle.
In January, Reporters Without Frontiers expressed its deepening concern about the safety of journalists and demanded that authorities take action to ensure their protection.
Tragically, quite apart from the fighting in the city between forces supporting General Khalifa Hafter and 17 February Brigade, Libya Shield No. 1 forces and Ansar Al-Sharia, gunmen succeeded later in the morning in murdering Colonel Abdul Hamid Saad, a member of the army’s 319 battalion. He was shot in his car while in Gwarsha district.
Last night, gunmen also murdered Salah Abdullah Kuwairi, a 52-year-old teacher who used to serve as the secretary of a Qaddafi committee. He was shot in the head and body at a mechanical workshop in the Sabri district. Two other people were wounded in the shooting.
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