Shots fired at Libya PM’s convoy

UN-backed leader and top officials unhurt in shooting

TRIPOLI // A convoy carrying the prime minister of Libya’s UN-backed government and other top officials was the target of heavy gunfire yesterday in Tripoli, but they survived unharmed. “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 of the cars were armour-plated and there were no injuries,” he said, adding that an investigation was under way to identify the assailants.

It was unclear who was behind the shots or whether it was a targeted attack, he said.

Tripoli is highly volatile. The city is controlled by several armed groups, some of whom support the GNA and some who oppose it. There are frequent clashes and gunfire.

The convoy fired at yesterday was carrying Mr Al Sarraj, state council head Abdurrahman Swehli, and the commander of a fledgling presidential guard, Najmi Nakua, said Mr Al Thulthi.

He said reports from Mr Swehli’s office that two guards had been injured were inaccurate, although 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 yesterday morning, and published pictures of themselves at the event. It did not mention the shooting. Libya has been in chaos since the fall and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in a Nato- backed armed uprising in 2011.

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.