By McClatchy Newspapers

Published: Monday, October 8, 2012, 6:54 p.m.
Updated: Monday, October 8, 2012

Thousands of Libyan security force members and hundreds of militiamen have massed around the Libyan town of Bani Walid in a show of force that underscores how tense and fragile the country's security situation remains.

It has been almost a month since an attack by Islamist militants on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

The faceoff at Bani Walid pits militia forces once loyal to deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi against Libyan security forces and militiamen from Misrata who were critical to the anti-Gadhafi uprising last year. The immediate cause is the Sept. 25 death of a militiaman who helped capture Gadhafi.

Security forces began laying siege to Bani Walid a week ago, demanding that Gadhafi loyalists implicated in the death of Omran Shaban be turned over. The siege has cut off food, water and medical supplies, with local doctors complaining that armed men set up a checkpoint on the main road from Tripoli, the capital, and blocked three vehicles carrying medical supplies, oxygen and medical personnel from reaching the town. Civilians trying to flee the town were prevented from doing so.

Amnesty International, the international advocacy group, last week denounced the cordon around Bani Walid. “It is worrying that what essentially should be a law enforcement operation to arrest suspects looks increasingly like a siege of a city and a military operation,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty.

Bani Walid was one of the last cities in Libya to capitulate to revolutionary forces after the fall of Gadhafi, and pro-Gadhafi tribes remain influential there. The conflict arose when Shaban and several colleagues from Misrata were sent to Bani Walid in July to help free several journalists from Misrata who'd been abducted by gunmen.

Instead, Shaban, who is widely recognized as the militiaman who found Gadhafi hiding inside a drainage pipe outside the city of Sirte in October 2011, was taken captive. He was shot and allegedly tortured.

Libyan authorities ordered that Shaban's abductors be surrendered, and when a deadline passed with no response from Bani Walid leaders, they called a general mobilization of forces to impose the siege. A new deadline has been set for Wednesday, though many in Bani Walid apparently were defiant and there were reports of fighting Monday, with at least one person killed.

1. Indian circuses fight for life
2. Algerian transition concerns U.S.
3. 6 Americans die in suicide blast in Afghanistan
4. Bombs shred Sunni areas, killing 76
5. Egypt’s Mubarak talks for 1st time since detention, or does he?
6. Bombings kills at least 33 in Iraq
7. Mexican official fired over influence
8. In Syria, thousands disappear
9. Venezuela’s military sent into high-crime slums
10. 813 Italians made saints by Francis
11. Afghanistan: Iranian guards killed migrants

There are currently no comments for this story.
Subscribe today! Click here for our subscription offers.