Libya militia surrounds airport

Gunmen from a Libyan militia surrounded Tripoli’s international airport on Monday to secure the release of one of their leaders whom they believed had been kidnapped and held there, a security official said.

The action by the al-Awfea Brigade militia forced flights to be diverted to the capital’s military airport, he said.

“The situation in the airport is very tense and tanks are surrounding the buildings. No one is allowed into the building,” said the official.

The incident is the latest in a series of events that highlighted the inability of the weak central government to assert its authority on a myriad of armed militias that have refused to give up their weapons after the popular revolution which ousted Moammar Gadhafi last August.

Last month, one person was killed and several wounded when militiamen protesting against the Libyan prime minister started shooting.

A Defence Ministry official said the militia at the airport had driven their armoured vehicles onto the runway and surrounded planes.

“They are on the runway, in the car park, everywhere,” he said. “There are no flights.”

A member of the Awfea Brigade told Reuters that they believed their leader Colonel Abu Oegeila al-Hebshi was being detained in the airport after being taken by the Tripoli Security Committee on Sunday night for reasons he did not know. “We are protesting his kidnapping by coming to this airport,” Anas Amara said.