28-03-2024 09:29 PM Jerusalem Timing

Benghazi Clashes Kill, Injure Dozens, Libyan Authorities Warn of Chaos

Benghazi Clashes Kill, Injure Dozens, Libyan Authorities Warn of Chaos

Clashes in the Libyan city of Benghazi killed at least four people and injured dozens others, as the authorities warned of chaos.

Clashes in the Libyan city of Benghazi killed at least four people and injured dozens others, as the authorities warned of chaos.Libya clashes

Early on Saturday protesters ousted the extremist militia from its headquarters I Benghazi, a day after tens of thousands took to the streets on Friday to protest against the power of this militia.

The group's members took flight as hundreds of protesters stormed and then torched its compound, and also evicted it from the city's Al-Jalaa hospital, where they were replaced by military police.

Meanwhile, the demonstrators also stormed a raft of other paramilitary bases in the city controlled by former rebel units that had declared their loyalty to the central government.

It was at one such base -- the headquarters of the Raf Allah al-Sahati Brigade, an Islamist unit under the authority of the defense ministry -- that the four people were killed in clashes between its fighters and hundreds of protesters, some of them armed.

Another 40 people were wounded in the pre-dawn fighting at the base in a farm in the Hawari district on the outskirts of Benghazi, hospital records showed.

Worried Libyan authorities called on the demonstrators to distinguish between what it called illegitimate brigades and those who are under state control, warning that the neutralization of loyal units risked chaos.