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By Moutaz Ali.
Tripoli, 16 August 2016:
The Tripoli Revolutionaries’ Brigade has said that its commander Haitham Tajouri was targeted unsuccessfully by assassins over the weekend. The attack on a TRB post at Mitiga airport, is said to have been mounted by members of the Al-Buni brigade, whose leader is known to be close to intelligence chief Mohamed Muftah Nuh.
It is unclear if the alleged attempt to kill Tajouri was the trigger for his seizure of intelligence offices in Tripoli, or a consequence of that act.
In a statement today the TRB said that the attack happened on Sunday, the day that Tajouri sent his men to occupy the intelligence HQ in Fornaj, as well as four other sites in the city, including the office at Mitiga airport. However the Libya Herald understands that the Al-Buni brigade mounted their assault on Saturday.
The TRB statement went on confirm its respect for the independence of the intelligence network but said that it would not withdraw from the intelligence buildings until Nuh had been replaced. It accused him of bribery to advance his personal ambitions and that this had disrupted the proper function of the intelligence organisation.
It also claimed that an intelligence officer, whom it named as Joudet Al-Khadar had been using financial inducements to get colleagues to spy for “foreign countries”. No further details were given.
It said that the intelligence organisation should by run by professionals who kept themselves above politics.
“We are ready to hand over all the administration buildings once the Presidency Council has assigned a new intelligence head in accordance with the Libyan Political Agreement”.
This is not the first reported attempt on Tajouri’s life. A year ago he was supposedly shot. In 2013 he was kidnapped on the capital’s Airport Road by a Zintani militia who held him overnight and then freed him saying his seizure had been “ a misunderstanding”.
