Libya's interior minister survives assassination attempt
Three armed individuals opened fire on the convoy carrying the Interior Minister of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord, Fathi Bashagha. The incident took place on a road west of Tripoli, near the Janzur district. Interior Ministry sources said Bashagha survived the attack.
Security forces pursued the assailants. They killed one of them and arrested two other assailants, although one of the Minister's bodyguards was injured. The Interior Ministry's own statement described the attack as an "assassination attempt".
Bashagha was returning to his residence after a meeting with the head of the Libyan National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla. At the meeting, the two agreed to "work together to secure the oil sector and strengthen its independence to ensure a fair distribution of wealth among all Libyans," the minister said on Twitter.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, underscoring the insecurity in the North African county. However, local media reported that the attackers belonged to the Security Support Apparatus of the Libyan security forces, and that it was not an assassination attempt, but a mix-up due to lack of coordination and inappropriate behaviour by Bashagha's bodyguards.
The Security Support Apparatus was created on the orders of Prime Minister Fayed Serraj and is directly under his command. The organisation overrides the command of the Ministries of Interior or Defence and is headed by a warlord, Abdelghani al Kikli, alias 'Ghenewa'. The Ministries of Defence and Interior, for their part, maintain the theory of an assassination attempt and have announced that they will launch the relevant investigations to clarify the facts.
The incident comes as the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), of which Bashagha is a member, prepares to make way for a new interim government elected in a UN-led process aimed at unifying Libya's warring factions, separated since the split caused by the 2014 civil war.
Bashagha himself was one of the losing candidates to become prime minister of the unity government, but has publicly expressed his support for the new administration, eventually led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah as prime minister and Mohammad Younes Menfi as head of the Presidential Council.
As interior minister, Fathi Bashagha had pledged to rein in the armed groups that have held power on the ground in western Libya since the 2011 uprising following the death of Muammar al-Gaddafi and often enjoy official status.
UN envoy Jan Kubis condemned the incident and called for an investigation. He called the attack "reckless" and a "threat to stability and security aimed at derailing the political process". US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland also condemned the attack and called for an investigation to hold those responsible to account. Norland said that Bashagha's "approach to ending the influence of rebel militias has our full support.
