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By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 10 August 2015:
An ambulance driver and a passenger narrowly escaped death yesterday when guards at a checkpoint near . . .[restrict]Maya, west of Tripoli, fired a missile at their vehicle, blowing it up.
The ambulance, heading towards Zawia, was coming back from Tripoli where it had left at patient in hospital, and the passenger was the patient’s father, returning home. Despite being flagged down at the checkpoint, near Camp 27, the driver decided not to stop. At that point the checkpoint guards fired.
Both men are now being treated in Zawia hospital.
People are becoming increasingly nervous at stopping at some checkpoints. A number of them have been set up by gangs masquerading as guards to rob, seize or even rape drivers and their passengers. Even at checkpoints operated by ostensibly “legitimate” forces there have been horror stories of people being robbed and raped.
Last week, the Libya Herald was told by a reliable source of a man being stopped at a checkpoint guarded by a militia near the oil tanks on Tripoli’s Airport Road. According to the source, the guards, having first demanded to see his identification, then stole his money and his mobile and then raped him.
He then reported the incident to other security guards further along the road. They told him to get into their vehicle and go an identify the culprits and the location. When they got there, they drove straight past, telling the man that they knew the people involved and that nothing could be done. [/restrict]
