BENGHAZI: The head of a committee tasked with finding posts for militia fighters in the police in eastern Libya said yesterday he had quit, becoming the third senior security figure sidelined a week after a deadly attack on the US Consulate In Benghazi.
Fozi Al-Qaddafi, who is not related to ousted dictator Muammar Qaddafi, said he had resigned as eastern Libya head of the Security Committee in protest because recruits were not being adequately paid or supplied. His deputy was acting in the post, he said.
Rows over top security posts have created a leadership vacuum in Benghazi at a time when US officials are demanding Libya act against those who attacked the consulate on Sept. 11, killing the US ambassador and three other Americans.
The government in Tripoli announced this week that it was sacking the deputy interior minister for the east and the police chief of Benghazi, but both men have refused to step aside. The man named to take on both jobs, Salah Doghman, told Reuters on Wednesday he asked the government to send troops if necessary to install him in his new job.
Libya’s security institutions have been weak and armed militia have remained powerful since Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown last year in a NATO-backed revolution.
Benghazi, 1,000 km from Tripoli across largely empty desert, is under the thumb of various armed groups, including some comprised of militants who openly proclaim their hostility to democratic government and the West. Some of these have been identified by local people as being among those who were at the consulate protest last week.
Libyan security aide quits
