Turmoil persists across Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya— On the anniversary of the capture and killing of Moammar Gadhafi, Libya is still grappling with the legacy of his four decades of rule as the interim government and the dictator’s former spokesman engaged in a war of words amid the ongoing chaos.

The Libyan government said Saturday that its forces had detained Gadhafi’s high profile spokesmanMoussa Ibrahim, but an online recording from a man purporting to be Ibrahim denied that claim and said hewasn’t even in the country.

The conflicting reports, neither of which could be independently verified, reflect the turmoil that has persisted over the past year, leaving the oilrich North African nation deeply divided. Tensions have spiked as rival forces battle over the city of Bani Walid.

BaniWalid, some 90 miles southeast of Tripoli, was the last major city in Libya to fall to the uprising, thanks in part to its protected location in a valley near the mountains. Over the past year, it has seen periodic violence and emerged as the most significant town in Libya still resisting the country’s new authorities since Gadhafi was slain near his hometown of Sirte last year.

A campaign issue

“We’ve lost too many people in BaniWalid, and we are still losing them so I don’t think it’s time for a celebration,” said AbdessalemMahfoud, a local neighborhood council member in Tripoli, when asked about the anniversary of Gadhafi’s death.

The turmoil in Libya, which overthrew Gadhafi last year with the help of NATO airstrikes, has become a campaign issue in the U. S. presidential race after an attack on the U. S. Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Formany who fought against Gadhafi, the new Libya cannot be born until the last vestiges of the old regime, fugitives like Ibrahim and towns like BaniWalid, have been routed.

“I don’t think things are really moving in the right direction until we finish with BaniWalid because it is stopping us from making a new Libya,” said Abdel- Basit alMzirig, a former deputy justiceminister on Libya’s human rights council.

The primeminister’s office said that Ibrahim was caught at a checkpoint outside BaniWalid while trying to flee an uptick in fighting over the town and would be taken to Tripoli for questioning.

However, the government produced no proof of its claim, and hours later, Ibrahim had not been seen in public. State television did briefly show a photograph of aman in a hospital bed with a bandaged shoulder which they labeled as the former spokesman, but the veracity of the photo could not be confirmed.

Caught, or not

The English- speaking Ibrahim became the face of the regime in its final months and was the most well- known former regime figure to remain unaccounted for after Gadhafi’s son and heirapparent Seif al- Islam was taken late last year.

The regime’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al- Senoussi was later detained inMauritania and extradited to Libya.

It is not clear what charges Ibrahimmight face, but officials say he might be accused of incitement and disseminating false information.

The recording, posted on Ibrahim’s Facebook page, rejected reports that he had been captured, as well as rumors about the detention of Gadhafi’s son Khamis, who was reportedly killed last year.