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| Africa North |
| Tripoli TV station attacked, Officials kidnapped |
| 2013-03-08 |
| [Libya Herald] Several hundred gunnies stormed Alassema TV station this afternoon, Thursday, in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... 's Gurgi district, smashed the place up and kidnapped five members of staff including the channel's manager and its chief executive officer. According to Rajab Ben Gazi, one of Alassema's presenters who was present during the attack those involved were a mix of revolutionaries, Islamists and civilians. "Some of them were shouting 'the blood of the deaders will not go in vain'. Others set fire to part of the building and destroyed a lot of the channel equipment," he said. Another member of staff told the Libya Herald that some were dressed in uniform and others in civilian clothes. They accused the station of causing fitna -- dissension and discord. The gunnies then seized channel manager Juma Usata and his secretary, Mohamed Atif, its executive director, Nabil Shaibani, and two Alassema presenters, Mohamed Huni and Mahmoud Sharkisi. "They accused us of being linked to Mahmoud Jibril (the head of the National Force Alliance) and said that our manager, Juma Usta, is a Qadaffy loyalists because he worked as manager of a Chamber Commerce and Industry during the Qadaffy regime," Ben Gazi said. "The gunnies were asking about the editors of the channel and who was the responsible for the news tickers," he added. "They told me to leave Tripoli immediately and return to Misrata." The gunnies later released Sharkisi, Huni and Atif. Sharkisi said that he had been treated respectfully and that no one touched or hurt him. Usata and Shaibani are still missing. Following the attack, a force from the Chief General Staff arrived to assess the situation to take necessary measures to secure the place and assess the damage. There are allegations circulating in Tripoli this evening linking the attack to Tuesday's seizure of Congress members and the attempt to force them to pass the "Political Isolation Law" which would ban senior Qadaffy officials from office, and the shooting at Congress President Mohamed Magarief's car afterwards. |
| Posted by:Fred |