Two ragtag Libyan rebel groups have turned arms against each other killing 12 men in the first incident of its kind since the start of an armed rebellion against the ousted Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.
The clash, which took place on Saturday, was believed rooted in ancient tribal rivalries between people from the towns of Gharyan and Kikla on the one side and from Asabah on the other, according to the chief of the Gharyan council and confirmed by the head of the military council of Asabah.
The Infighting among the rebels came despite pleas from the National Transitional Council (NTC) to rebel factions to avoid internal conflicts.
NTC says Qaddafi, despite driven out from the capital, still constituted a threat, which all fighters have to remain united against. It also says that the challenge of rebuilding the country should be seen as more important than settling internal disputes.
Anti-Qaddafi rebels backing Libya’s new rulers fought their way Sunday to the gates of oasis town Bani Walid and were closing in on Sirte, poised for all-out assaults on the Libyan deposed leader’s remaining strongholds.
Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil Saturday gave the green light for attacks on Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, Sirte to the east and Sabha in the deep south after declaring the deadline for pro-Qaddafi enclaves to surrender over.
In a major NTC achievement, the head of Qaddafi’s external security organization, Bouzaid Dorda, has been in Tripoli, witnesses told Reuters.
Dorda, Qaddafi’s foreign intelligence service chief, will be handed over to Libya’s interim governing council later on Sunday, an anti-Gaddafi fighter said.
A team of Reuters journalists visited a house in the capital’s Zenata district where Dorda, a former prime minister, was held by members of a unit of anti-Gaddafi fighters who call themselves Brigades of the Martyr Abdelati Ghaddour.
Dorda was kept in the downstairs living room of a private house, which was guarded by about 20 fighters clad in battle fatigues and armed with assault rifles.
Dorda took on his job in May after his predecessor Moussa Koussa defected.
He has been subject to a travel ban under a United Nations sanctions resolution passed in February.
Dorda is one of several former government officials rounded up since Tripoli fell to anti-Gaddafi forces last month. Gaddafi's foreign minister, Abdelati Obeidi, was arrested on August 31 in a suburb west of Tripoli.
