By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 8 June 2015:
A Tarhouna checkpoint was attacked late yesterday. According to initial reports, three people were killed and . . .[restrict]vehicles and weapons were taken by the attackers on the Fum Malgha checkpoint halfway between Tarhouna and Esbaieh, on the road to Tripoli. In a later report, a Tarhouna resident said that one checkpoint guard was killed but several others were kidnapped. This has not been confirmed.
A mortar also hit a clinic in the town, but it is not known if the two incidents are connected.
The attackers are unknown, although local say they suspect IS supporters. It is reported that there is some support for the militants in the town, and that it is growing.
There are now deep divisions in Tahrouna, previlously a Qaddafi stronghold.
Its former member of Congress, Salem Ali Hamali, was kidnapped and then murdered last month. In March, two brothers of the town’s member of the House of Representatives were abducted. There has also been bitter and bloody rivalry between two prominent families, the Habshis and the Marghanis, the latter formerly Qaddafi supporters but now hardline Islamists. [/restrict]
