TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI: Libya’s army chief of staff resigned yesterday after clashes in the eastern city of Benghazi the previous day in which 31 people were killed, national assembly sources said.
In a closed-door meeting, Yussef Al Mangoush told the General National Congress, Libya’s highest political body, that he would no longer continue in the job and the assembly accepted the resignation, three members told Reuters.
“Yussef Al Mangoush has told the congress he is no longer willing to continue the journey,” one politician told Reuters in a mobile phone message. Two other sources confirmed the resignation.
The congress picked Mangoush’s deputy, Salem Al Gnaidy, to fill the position until a new army chief is picked, one member said. Speculation has been rife for months about Mangoush’s fate amid an increase in violence.
On Saturday, fighting broke out at the headquarters of the Libya Shield brigade in Benghazi when protesters demanded the disbanding of militias made up of former rebels. Order was only restored in Libya’s second city when special forces seized the compound of Libya Shield, which said it was operating with official approval. Libya Shield is an umbrella group of brigades with bases in Benghazi, cradle of Libya’s 2011 uprising.
Earlier, Ali Al Sheikhi, spokesman for the army chief Of staff, said any decision on disbanding the brigades could only be taken by the national assembly, but that national army colonels had been ordered to take control of these bases in Benghazi. “This is what the people want,” he said.
The planned to seize the bases was confirmed by Abdullah Al Shaafi, spokesman for the government’s Benghazi security operations room, but it was not immediately clear when this would happen or whether the brigades would cooperate. “What army can take control?” said Ismail Salabi, a Libya Shield commander. “There is no army but Libya Shield.”
Reuters
