Libya on alert after Congress attack

Army calls on Islamist militias to help defeat renegade ex-general

The Libyan capital remained tense on Monday, a day after forces loyal to a renegade general stormed the legislature and declared it suspended, challenging the legitimacy of the country's weak central government, three years after the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gadhafi.

Libya's leadership condemned Sunday's brazen attack in which two people reportedly died and more than 50 were wounded, and vowed to carry on.

The attack saw militia members backed by truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns, mortars and rocket fire raid the legislature building in the heart of Tripoli, sending lawmakers fleeing for their lives as gunmen ransacked the legislature.

Hours later, a commander in the military police in Libya read a statement announcing the suspension of the General National Congress on behalf of a group led by General Khalifa Hifter, a one-time rebel commander who said the US had backed his efforts to topple Gadhafi in the 1990s.

Mokhtar Farnana, speaking on a Libyan television channel on behalf of Hifter's group, said it had assigned a 60-member constituent assembly to take over for the legislature. Farnana said Libya's current government would take on the role of emergency Cabinet, without elaborating.

Farnana, who is in charge of prisons operated by the military police, said forces loyal to Hifter carried out Sunday's attack, insisting it was not a coup, but a battle by "the people's choice".

"We announce to the world that the country can't be a breeding ground or an incubator for terrorism," said Farnana, who wore a military uniform and sat in front of Libya's flag.

Government defiant

Libya's interim government condemned the attack on the legislature in a statement issued shortly after midnight on Sunday, and largely ignored the declaration by the general's group.

"The government condemns the expression of political opinion through the use of armed force," Libyan Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani said in a statement.

"It calls for an immediate end of the use the military arsenal ... and calls on all sides to resort to dialogue and reconciliation."

However, on Monday, Libya's army chief ordered "Libya's Central Shield" - an umbrella group of powerful Islamist militias - to come to the government's aid in the capital.

Also on Monday, the Lions of Monotheism Group - an al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist militia - vowed to join the fight against Hifter's forces, raising the prospect of widespread fighting between rival militias.

Targeting Islamists

The attack on the legislature followed an assault by Hifter's forces on Islamist militias on Friday in the restive eastern city of Benghazi, with officials putting the death toll at 70.

Sunday's attack in Tripoli targeted the Islamist lawmakers and officials Hifter blames for allowing extremists to hold the country ransom, his spokesman Mohammed al-Hegazi told Libyan television station al-Ahrar.

"This legislature is what supports these extremist Islamist entities," al-Hegazi said. "The aim was to arrest these Islamist bodies who wear the cloak of politics."

In televized comments after the assault in Benghazi, Hifter said: "Today is the start of a national battle. It is not a coup, it is not a quest for authority."

He added: "All Libyan blood is sacred but the terrorism and its servants wanted a battle."

Since Gadhafi's overthrow, Libya's army and police have relied on the country's myriad of militias, the heavily armed groups formed around ethnic identity, hometowns and religion that emerged from the rebel factions that toppled Gadhafi.

Bringing the militias under control has been one of the greatest challenges for Libya's successive interim governments, one they largely failed at as militias have seized oil terminals and even kidnapped a former prime minister, seemingly at will.