Libyan PM visits Benghazi to support troops
By Ayman al-Warfalli
BENGHAZI, Libya Sun Feb 1, 2015 9:39pm GMT
Libya's Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni takes part in a joint news conference with Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat (not pictured) at the Auberge de Castille in Valletta in this file photo taken on October 21, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libya's internationally recognised Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and his ministers visited the eastern city of Benghazi in a show of support for his troops battling Islamists groups.
Thinni's forces, together with troops loyal to army general Khalifa Haftar, launched an offensive against Islamist fighters in Benghazi in October - part of turmoil gripping the oil producer four years after the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi.
Thinni's troops have regained territory in several districts of the Mediterranean port city, Libya's second largest, and say they hold 90 percent of it, although fighting continues near the port and other areas.
Highlighting the fluid situation, videos surfaced last week on social media purportedly showing members of the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia driving in cars through Benghazi's streets in an alleged bid to set up a Sharia police force.
In an attempt to show his own forces are in charge, Thinni and his ministers flew in to Benghazi airport, which has been closed for commercial flights since May because of fighting.
"I came here to tell the world that the city has not been hijacked as some claim but liberated," he told Reuters after a cabinet meeting in a heavily-protected barracks. "Some areas are still out of our control but the army is dealing with it."
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Libyan PM visits Benghazi to support troops