TRIPOLI // A convoy carrying the prime minister of Libya’s UN-backed government and other top officials came under heavy gunfire Monday in Tripoli, but they survived unharmed, officials said.
“The convoy of GNA [Government of National Accord] chief Fayez Al Sarraj ... came under fire as it passed near the Abu Slim sector of Tripoli,” said GNA spokesman, Ashraf Al Thulthi.
“All the cars were armoured-plated, and there were no injuries,” he said, adding an investigation was under way to identify the assailants.
It was unclear who was behind the shooting or whether it was a targeted attack, he said.
Security in Tripoli is highly volatile. The city is controlled by multiple armed groups, some of which support the GNA and some of which oppose it. There are frequent clashes and gunfire.
The convoy that came under fire on Monday was carrying Mr Al Sarraj, state council head Abdurrahman Swehli, and the commander of a fledgling presidential guard, Najmi Nakua, said Mr Al Thulthi.
Mr Thulthi said reports from Mr Swehli’s office that two guards had been injured were inaccurate, though he said some bullets had struck the convoy’s armoured vehicles.
“There is an ongoing investigation into the source of the shooting. They want to figure out if there was any party behind the shooting or if it was random,” he said.
The GNA said the three leaders had opened a new criminal investigations unit in Tripoli on Monday morning, and published pictures of themselves at the event. It did not mention the shooting.
Libya has been submerged in chaos since the fall and slaying of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in a Nato-backed 2011 armed uprising.
Mr Al Sarraj’s fragile GNA, formed under a UN-backed deal signed in late 2015, has struggled to impose its authority, particularly in eastern Libya where a rival administration holds sway.
He and the GNA’s other leaders arrived in Tripoli last March in an effort to unite Libya’s factions and end the turmoil, but his government has remained half-formed, unable to win backing from power-brokers in eastern Libya or effectively impose its authority in Tripoli and the west.
* Reuters and Agence France-Presse
