Libyan television station, Al-Nabaa, attacked by gunmen Wednesday night, who cut the television transmission and forced all staff out of the building reports AFP
The television station is said to have close ties with the unrecognized authorities in control of Libya’ capital city, Tripoli. Programming was stopped and a red banner reading ‘urgent’ then went ahead to announce that “The sons and the revolutionaries of Tripoli have closed the channel of discord and instigation”. The message threatened to hunt down anyone working for the channel in the future.
“They took us out of the offices, took control and suspended broadcasting. None of us has been hurt,” a journalist from the channel told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The television channel had earlier aired head of the unrecognized authorities in control of Tripoli, Khalif Ghweil, who ordered Fayez al-Sarraj, a businessman named prime minister-designate of the UN-backed unity government to leave the capital, Tripoli. This was shortly after the arrival of Sarraj by sea from Tunisia along with several members of his UN backed cabinet.
Khalif Ghweli said Sarraj’s government was ‘illegal’ and asked him to leave or ‘hand himself in’; the address was aired by the Al-Nabaa channel.
Sarraj arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday due to mounting pressure by the international community for Libya’s rival political camps to unite behind his adminstartion.
Libya’s woes began in 2014 when a militia overtook the internationally recognized parliament in Tripoli and set up its own authority causing the recognized parliament to flee to the remote east of Libya.
