By Mustafa Khalifa,
Ghat 10 August, 2015:
The municipal council in Sebha is calling on people to continue with normal life and had . . .[restrict]assuring them that the “situation is under control,” according to a public statement.
The council asked business owners to “resume” their daily work and remove road barriers after recent clashes between forces ostensibly loyal to the continuing General National Congress (GNC) and supporters of the former regime left 12 people dead and more than 40 others injured.
It was initially reported that five people had been killed in the clashes: four pro-Qaddafi protestors and a member of the security forces.
The surge in casualties, according to Abdullah Ouhadh, head of Sebha Medical Centre, was a result of indiscriminate shelling of civilian residential areas.
The head of investigations at Sebha’s Gardah police station, Yahya Shuwail, said, “two foreign nationals were identified among the dead” and the rest were Libyans, including a woman.
“Security is everyone’s responsibility and any breaches should be reported to the authorities,” the council said in its statement.
The clashes erupted Saturday in the centre of Sebha when people carrying green flags and banners supporting the former Qaddafi regime staged another protest at the death sentences on Saif Al-Islam, Abdullah Senussi and seven other prominent former regime figures.
According to the GNC-backed Third Force, it fired shots to disperse the protest after armed men hiding among the protesters opened fire on it.
The Third Force, mainly from Misrata, is supposed to be in charge of securing Libya’s vast southern region.
In a statement issued last week, the force warned people against staging protests and raising the old regime’s green flags.
Mohammed Kulaioan the spokesman for the Third Force militia said he met with a delegation from the Qaddadfa tribe and, in return for the ceasefire, they pledged to take down the old regime’s flags, reopen the roads and end the protest.
“In case of non-compliance with the agreement, they will be confronted,” Kulaioan said.
A delegation from the Zintan tribe has reportedly arrived in Sebha for reconciliation talks with the Qaddadfa tribe about the recent violence and ending the bloodshed in the city. [/restrict]
