By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 12 August 2014:
Colonel Mohamed Al-Suwaisi, the head of Tripoli Security Directorate, was assassinated today in Tajoura.
He . . .[restrict]was shot a number of times around midday by unknown gunmen when his car stopped at traffic lights. According to Hashem Bishr, the former head of the Supreme Security Committee, Suweisi had just left a security meeting in the Tripoli suburb accompanied by two colleagues when masked gunmen rushed up and starting firing. After shooting Suweisi dead the gunmen then seized the other two and drove off with them.
Suweisi was appointed head of the National Security Directorate in last October following the resignation of Colonel Mahmoud Al-Sharif. He was in charge of the police in the capital as well as being in overall control of its security.
He had come out in support of General Hafter’s Operation Dignity in Benghazi and was known to be opposed to the Misrata-led Operation Libya Dawn in the capital.
At the beginning of the week he had ordered police officers in Tripoli to return to work. Large numbers have not been at work since the revolution, although they continue to draw their salaries.
A group said to be linked to the Libyan Revolutionaries Operations Room has claimed that Misratan and Suq Al-Juma revolutionaries were responsible for the killing. On its Facebook page, the group, calling itself the Official Operations Room, said that Misrata revolutionaries with the help of others from Suq Al-Juma had arrested four people who were planning to take over a camp in Tajoura and that two, whom it labelled as supporters of the former regime, had been killed. These included Suweisi, it said.
The claim cannot be verified and, given that it appears to contains errors, may be wholly nothing more than dishonest boasting. [/restrict]
