Militants claim to set up 'police force', court for Libya's Benghazi

A police officer was killed and two injured when two explosions rocked the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Monday morning.

The blasts, which targeted a security headquarters building in the city, detonated within five minutes of each other just after sunrise.

It is thought that two IEDs were thrown towards the building from a car parked on the street.

The car was mounted with an anti-aircraft gun, which the militants fired into the air in celebration after launching the explosions, according to local residents who spoke to Libyan news site al-Wasat.

Since last August the capital has been under the control of Libya Dawn, formerly a group of anti-Gaddafi rebels now allied with the General National Council (GNC), one of the rival parliaments that are locked in a power struggle.

The GNC’s competitor, the House of Representatives, was forced to relocate from the capital last year after the Libya Dawn takeover.

The GNC continues to meet in Tripoli, which was attacked last week when gunmen stormed the luxury Corinthia hotel where GNC Prime Minister Omar al-Hassi was staying. At least 11 people were killed in the attack.

Militants launch ‘police force’

Some 1,000 kilometres east of the capital, militants just outside Benghazi claimed to have established their own court system and police force.

Ansar al-Sharia, a group nominally allied to Islamic State, circulated images purporting to show a long line of identical silver 4x4s on patrol in suburbs just outside the city.

Other photos claimed to show a line of black pick-up trucks mounted with flashing lights and emblazoned with the slogan “Islamic police”.

Announcing the establishment of the force via their Twitter page, Ansar al-Sharia said the cars had patrolled the suburbs of al-Qawarisha and al-Hawari some 15 kilometres east of central Benghazi, to “secure the areas and establish [Islamic law] within them”.

According to pan-Arabic news site al-Hayat, a premises in one of the suburbs is being used as a court – supporters of Ansar al-Sharia posted images of a small brown building bedecked with a banner reading “Islamic police”.

Ansar al-Sharia are locked in battle with forces under the command of Khalifa Haftar, formerly a renegade general who is now leading the Libyan army’s anti-militia campaign, dubbed Operation Dignity.

In an interview with BBC Arabic last week, Haftar claimed that his forces had “caused huge losses” among the ranks of militias in Benghazi, whom they have been fighting since last May.

Haftar said his troops have “almost finished off the armed groups after restricting their supply of equipment, which was reaching them from Mali and other countries."

In his half-hour interview, Haftar also confirmed for the first time that his forces, fighting under the auspices of the Libyan army, have received weapons and material support from foreign countries including Egypt and the UAE.