Gunmen kill Libya police chief
October 18, 2013
Unidentified assailants gunned down Libya's military police chief outside of his home in Benghazi on Friday, according to Libyan security officials. Colonel Ahmed Mostafa el-Barghathy was reportedly heading to mosque to attend Friday prayers when he killed.
"Several shots hit Ahmed [Mostafa] el-Barghathy. He was brought to hospital but later died there," a security source told the news agency Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
El-Barghathy was one of the first members of the military to take up arms against Moammar Gadhafi in the 2011 uprising.
The latest attack comes roughly a week after the kidnapping of Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who was later released unharmed, and attacks on several consulates since this summer. Benghazi was also the site of the high-profile killing of the US ambassador Chris Stevens last year.
The incidents of violence underscore the new government's inability to assert control over armed militia groups and, thus, curb the persistent unrest in the North African country two years after Gadhafi's fall from power.
kms/ph (AP, AFP, Reuters)