TRIPOLI (Halbeeg News) –
Libyan authorities have announced increased security measures in the second-largest city, Benghazi, and the arrest of two suspects in connection with the killing of a militia leader wanted by the International Criminal Court.
Mahmoud al-Werfalli, a member of forces loyal to eastern renegade commander Khalifa Haftar, was shot dead on Wednesday along with his cousin in the city, cradle of the country’s 2011 revolution.
Security is precarious in Benghazi, eastern Libya, with frequent tit-for-tat violence and executions.
It was plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 and toppled and killed longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
For years, the country was split and controlled by two competing administrations: An internationally-recognised government in the western city of Tripoli and a rival administration in the east allied with Haftar.
Fighting only came to a halt last year and a formal ceasefire in October was followed by the establishment of a unity government led by interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.
The ICC issued a first warrant for al-Werfalli’s arrest in August 2017, accusing him of having ordered or personally carried out seven separate rounds of executions of 33 people in 2016 and 2017.
In July 2018, the ICC issued a second arrest warrant for al-Werfalli for his “alleged responsibility for murder as a war crime”. Al-Jazeera
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