Members and vehicles of the Al Qaaqa brigade from Zintan get ready to vacate their Tripoli premises yesterday as part of a government decision to remove militias from the capital and integrate them into the security forces.
TRIPOLI: Libyan militias including two groups from the western city of Zintan have withdrawn from the capital in response to public pressure nearly a week after deadly violence, they said yesterday.
The Al Qaaqa Brigade said it had handed back to the authorities a site it had occupied and pulled out of the city with its weapons and vehicles, including tanks.
Brigade commander Othman Mligta, a civilian, told AFP members of the group include military-registered border guards.
“They are leaving from here and will head for their posts on the southern frontier,” he said.
Another Zintan-based group, the Sawaek Brigade, which is one of the most heavily armed units that battled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, also said it was pulling out.
It said it was leaving the premises of a dhafi-founded organisation that it had occupied since rebels advanced into the capital in August 2011.
On Tuesday, the government announced plans to remove militias from Tripoli and eventually integrate them into the security forces, after a weekend of deadly clashes between militiamen and residents.
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan attended yesterday’s pullout by the Sawaek Brigade, and thanked the groups for complying with the government announcement.
“The decision to evacuate armed groups from the capital will apply to all factions without exception,” he said.
The Misrata militia, which was at the heart of the weekend violence in which 46 people died and some 500 were wounded, had already started pulling out of Tripoli on Monday at the behest of community leaders in their coastal city.
Former rebels helped topple and kill Kadhafi in 2011, but have since banded into militias carving their own fiefdoms, each with its own ideology and regional allegiance.
The unrest, the deadliest in Tripoli since the uprising, erupted on Friday when demonstrators protesting against militias in the Gharghour neighbourhood were fired upon from villas occupied by the Misrata fighters, who killed several of them.
Rival militiamen then swept in, sparking clashes that continued until Saturday.
The Misrata brigade saw some of the heaviest fighting during the uprising against Gaddafi.
AFP
