Gunmen kill Libyan journalist in Benghazi

TRIPOLI — Gunmen shot dead a newspaper editor who was an outspoken critic of Islamists in Libya’s volatile east on Monday, in a targeted killing that came hours after he warned the Islamist-led parliament of a civil war if it didn’t bow to widespread demands to disband and allow early elections.

Libya is deeply polarised, with a renegade general having launched an armed campaign against Islamists, who dominate the elected parliament and who on Sunday approved a new prime minister days after thousands held demonstrations demanding the assembly halt sessions. The demonstrators also accused it of financing Islamist militias.

A security official said the 50-year-old Moftah Abu Zeid, chief editor of the Brnieq newspaper, was attacked while driving down a main street in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 revolt that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Qadhafi. Over the last three years the city has seen near-daily attacks targeting security forces, activists, judges and moderate clerics.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to reporters, said the assailants fled the scene.

The paper posted pictures of the slain journalist’s body on its Facebook page and an image of his silver car, with the driver’s side window shattered. The daily Al Wasat quoted a medical official as saying that Abu Zeid was shot three times in the head and abdomen.

In an interview with the Libya Al Ahrar TV network broadcast late Sunday, Abu Zeid said that he had met with Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who is leading an offensive against Islamic militants in the city, and warned of a civil war if the parliament remained in place. Another paper, London-based Al Quds Al Arabi, had quoted him three days ago as saying that he received a warning to leave the country in 24 hours.

His newspaper last week carried a front-page picture of Haftar, and the editor, who was also a human rights activist, later said militiamen halted a shipment of the last issue on its way from Benghazi to the capital Tripoli.

Islamists have condemned the offensive launched earlier this month as a “coup”, while several prominent government officials, diplomats and military units have rallied to Haftar’s cause, hoping he can bring stability to the petroleum-rich North African country.

Haftar has said his campaign is aimed at imposing order and breaking the power of Islamists who lead the elected parliament, whom he accuses of opening the door to Islamic radicals.

The escalating conflict between Haftar’s forces and the Islamists is the biggest challenge yet to the country’s weak central government, which has struggled to rein in heavily armed former rebel brigades turned militias.

On Sunday, the embattled parliament approved an Islamist-backed government headed by Ahmed Maiteg despite a boycott by non-Islamists and the threats from Haftar.

Nadia Rashed, an independent female lawmaker, said the new government was “illegitimate and unconstitutional” because it was approved without the minimum number of votes required.

Maiteg — who hails from the western city of Misrata and whose relatives command Islamist militias — offered to include the interim prime minister, Abdullah Al Thinni, in his new line-up, but Thinni refused.

Thinni’s interim government had demanded that parliament disband and hold early elections in order to defuse the tensions. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for next month, but it’s not clear whether the vote can be held in the increasingly unstable country.

Thinni was promoted from defence minister to interim prime minister after the Western-backed premier Ali Zidan was pushed out of office in a no-confidence vote in March.

In a televised speech aired on Libya’s state television channel, Maiteg said the people should hold tight to “legitimate institutions”.

He said his government was committed to “building the state” and supporting the upcoming parliamentary elections, slated for June 25. He said his Cabinet, which is likely to be dissolved following the election of a new parliament, will have a comprehensive vision of solving problems “in this critical stage”, starting with security.

“State sovereignty and dignity is our priority,” he said.