Car bomb kills 10 in eastern Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A car bomb exploded Monday near a hospital in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing at least 10 people, officials said, in one of the biggest attacks since the end of the civil war that ousted former dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Attackers used a remote control to detonate the explosives-laden car, which was parked outside a bakery near the city's main hospital, according to Abdel-Salam al-Barghathi, a senior security official. Weapons including Kalashnikov rifles were found inside the car.

Al-Barghathi, the head of the operation room for one of the city's main security agencies, gave the death toll and said 13 people also were wounded in the blast.

There were conflicting reports about the number of causalities.

The Tripoli-based Interior Minister Ashour Shwayel said in an interview with Libya's al-Ahrar TV network that two or three people were killed. Meanwhile, Benghazi police chief Tarek al-Kharaz said at least 13 people were killed and 41 wounded.

The discrepancies could not immediately be reconciled due to the chaotic aftermath and lack of coordination between agencies.

Fathi al-Ubaidi, a top commander of Libya Shield pro-government militias, says one man arrested but refused to give further details.

Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, was the birthplace of the revolution that led to the death of Gadhafi and it has remained, like rest of the country, largely governed by militias in the absence of unified security and military. They refused to lay down their arms despite efforts by the Tripoli-based central government to impose law and order.

"This is meant to kill civilians and to destabilize the security of the city of Benghazi," he said. al-Barghathi

The city has suffered a series of assassinations and car bombs over the past year as power struggles between militias intensify.

On Sept. 11, The U.S. Ambassador in Libya Chris Stevens was killed along with three other Americans when militias launched two attacks on U.S. mission and another American-run site in the city. Attacks on foreign diplomats led Western countries including Britain to withdraw their nationals from the city.

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Deadly bomb strikes civilian area in east Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A deadly car bomb exploded Monday near a hospital in a busy area packed with civilians in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, destroying part of the facility, officials said.

Officials gave conflicting casualty figures, with death tolls ranging from three to 10 in the chaotic aftermath of the attack.

Benghazi, which was the birthplace of the revolution that led to the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, has suffered a series of assassinations and other attacks, including the Sept. 11 assaults on the U.S. diplomatic mission that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The oil-rich North African nation is still largely dominated by militias, many including fighters who battled Gadhafi's forces during the 2011 civil war, and many attacks are blamed on them as infighting is rampant in the battle for control.

But witnesses and analysts said Monday's explosion stood out because it struck during the day in a crowded area, putting civilians at risk.

"The bombing is significant in that it is the first that targets civilians," Frederic Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in an email.

"The bombing is going to put renewed pressure on an already embattled Ministry of Interior to reign in the revolutionary brigades," he added, referring to militias.

The blast took place on Beirut Street, a residential and shopping area in Libya's second-largest city and quickly drew protesters to the streets to call for stronger security measures. Other vehicles on the street were destroyed, and the windows of nearby buildings were shattered.

Jalaa hospital, just a few hundred meters (yards) away from the explosion, had been protected for months by Ansar al-Shariah, an extremist group that disbanded its work as a militia following protests by Benghazi residents after the attack on Stevens. The hospital is now secured by a mix of militias and special army forces.

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan acknowledged the government was in part to blame for the instability and lawlessness that continue to plague the North African nation 19 months after Gadhafi was captured and killed.

"Authorities did not take adequate precautions," he said in remarks carried live on Libya's al-Ahrar TV channel.

Zidan, who did not take questions from reporters, said that Libya is still trying to create a security force capable of tackling such attacks.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. Zidan suggested it could be Gadhafi supporters or "other factions" — leaving the door open for a range of groups.

Fathi al-Ubaidi, a top commander of Libya Shield, an umbrella group of militias aligned with the military, said one man was arrested but refused to give further details.

Small protests erupted in Benghazi and Tripoli after the attack, with people chanting: "Where is the army" and "Oh Zidan, oh Zidan, the Libyan people's blood is everywhere."

Witnesses and other residents said the daytime explosion was unusual since past attacks have occurred at night and have targeted police stations or foreign missions.

"The mood is bad because the explosion took everybody by surprise," said International Crisis Group consultant Claudia Gazzini, who was in Benghazi. "People in Benghazi see this as a turning point because it is the first time to see an indiscriminate attack with civilian casualties."

Dr. Habib Mohammed el-Obeidy said three bodies had been brought to Benghazi's main Jalaa Hospital after the explosion that struck just outside its doors. He blamed the confusion over the number of dead on the fact that body parts were brought in in several bags, making a final casualty figure difficult to assess.

He also said there was no security on the street.

"When we see police stations hit we understand because a large portion of security worked closely with Gadhafi, but this is hitting a civilian area with no security in sight. It is as if someone is shuffling cards around," he said.

Over the weekend explosions went off outside three Benghazi police stations. No one claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Senior security official Abdel-Salam al-Barghathi said 10 people had been killed in the bombing when attackers used a remote control to detonate the explosives-laden car, which was parked outside a bakery near the hospital. Weapons including Kalashnikov rifles were found inside the car, he said.

"This is meant to kill civilians and to destabilize the security of the city of Benghazi," he said.

The Tripoli-based Interior Minister Ashour Shwayel said earlier in an interview with al-Ahrar TV that two or three people were killed. Meanwhile, Benghazi police chief Tarek al-Kharaz said at least 13 people were killed and 41 wounded.

Nozha al-Mansouri, a 38 year-old resident of Bengazhi, said the attack was likely meant to embarrass the central government.

"Today's incident definitely draws attention to the government's shortcomings," she said.

Militias have grown bold in the past two years, taking on greater roles post-Gadhafi by providing border protection and security of airports to fill the vacuum as the central government has been unable to exert control.

But Libyans had hoped a return to normalcy after militias ended their nearly two week siege of two government ministries in the capital over the weekend, demanding that the prime minister and other Cabinet officials resign.

___

Batrawy contributed to this report from Cairo.

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Libya crisis deepens as rebel groups expand demands

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's political crisis deepened on Wednesday as armed groups surrounding two ministries in the capital said they had formed an alliance to present an expanded list of six demands that included the resignation of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.

Zeidan, for his part, promised the government would stick to plans to bar anyone who held a senior position under late dictator Muammar Gaddafi and said some ministers would have to be replaced under legislation passed on Sunday.

In fact, the prime minister himself could be unseated as he served as a diplomat under Gaddafi before defecting to the exiled opposition in 1980.

The armed groups initially demanded that parliament pass the "political isolation law" banning senior Gaddafi officials from office, and members had hoped the vote would be enough to dislodge the gunmen from their positions at the government ministries.

Instead, the groups have settled in and expanded their list of demands, which they presented to Reuters on a printed notice late on Wednesday.

The additional demands included Zeidan's resignation, the freezing of a recently released state budget and the right to form a committee to take charge of the Foreign Ministry.

But Zeidan defended the armed groups, saying they had a right to express their views as they saw fit.

"We don't have militias in Libya, we have revolutionaries," he told a news conference.

The prime minister also denied that parliament had bowed to their pressure, insisting the new law was necessary to protect the ideals of the revolution, adding he hoped the world would appreciate Libya's exceptional circumstances.

"With any law passed, there are some positive and some negative aspects, and we need to accept the negatives," he said.

In a separate development, a rival coalition that said it supported the government warned those stationed at the ministries it was prepared to use force to dislodge them.

"If you do not respond to our demands, we will form a common national force from all the cities of Libya to handle this situation," the group said on Wednesday.

Its members included federalists in eastern Cyrenaica and leaders of former rebel groups in a number of towns including Benghazi in the east.

(Reporting by Ghaith Shennib and Jessica Donati; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Libya bans Gadhafi-era officials from state posts

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Under pressure from armed militias, Libya's parliament passed a sweeping law Sunday that bans anyone who served as a senior official under Moammar Gadhafi during his 42 year-long rule from working in government.

The Political Isolation Law could lead to the dismissal of many current leaders, some of whom had defected to the rebel side during the country's 2011 civil war or had been elected to office since Gadhafi's ouster and killing. The move is also likely to further stall the country's already rocky transition to democracy by ousting elected lawmakers.

It injects a new dose of uncertainty into Libyan politics during a still-fragile transition. Liberals say it will give a boost to Islamists, who performed poorly in recent elections compared to their counterparts in other Arab states, although Islamists said they could also be affected by the ban.

The law was partially driven by the unpopularity of Libya's current crop of politicians among many of the still-powerful former rebels who toppled Gadhafi, and others who say little has improved since. Backers of the law say it is necessary to complete the revolution.

But critics say that the law was passed at gunpoint, as militias have surrounded several government buildings in Tripoli for the past several days barring officials from work. Their vehicles mounted with rocket-propelled grenades kept watch on the street during the vote.

Most of the militias have roots in the rebel groups that fought Gadhafi, but they have mushroomed in the two years since his fall. Many of the armed groups have been accused of rights abuses, but the government continues to rely on them to keep order in the absence of a strong police or military. Many militiamen say they mostly want jobs and steady pay.

The General National Congress, Libya's elected parliament, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the law. Out of 200 lawmakers, 169 attended the vote.

Deputy head of parliament Juma Attiga, who oversaw the vote, told the TV station Libya Ahrar that militias had pressured parliament to vote in favor of the law, but that he had planned to vote yes in any case. He may be affected since he served as head of a governmental rights group under Gadhafi.

The law highlights the government's inability to rein in armed groups and exposes the many obstacles the North African nation faces in rebuilding its weak central government.

It comes at a time when Islamists are in a position of strength following the Arab Spring uprisings that saw Libya's two neighbors — Tunisia and Egypt — oust longtime autocrats from power. As is the case in all three nations, Islamists and liberals are in a power tussle for control over the direction of their countries.

But unlike Egypt and Tunisia, liberals won big in Libya's first free elections last year. Former rebel leader Mahmoud Jibril's liberal bloc took nearly half of the seats allocated for party lists. The body has a significant numbers of independents allied with Islamist parties.

Legislators told The Associated Press that the law states that parliamentarians who lose their post will be replaced by either the next name on the party list or by the independent candidate who came in second in a district. This could benefit many Islamists, who trailed in the elections and came in second in many districts.

Lawmaker Tawfiq al-Shaybi, who is with Jibril's bloc, told Libya Ahrar TV that the country's Muslim Brotherhood party was pushing the law "in favor of themselves rather that in favor of what is best for the country."

Brotherhood lawmaker Majda al-Falah denied that Islamists passed the law to target their opponents.

"The proof of this is that 164 (parliamentarians) voted for the law and not all are Islamists, though among them are members of our party," she told The Associated Press. The law could also affect some Brotherhood figures who entered into reconciliation talks with Gadhafi's regime years ago, she said.

Several drafts of the bill were debated over the past several months, and it was not immediately clear how the final draft will be applied. Those who it does affect will be banned from government positions for 10 years.

Sunday's session of parliament, carried live on TV, was heated — some lawmakers demanded to debate articles, but Attiga cut them off insisting the session was just for voting.

Zeinab al-Targi, another member of Jibril's coalition in parliament, said the law essentially criminalizes people by excluding them from political life, even if they sided with the opposition that ousted Gadhafi.

Jibril, once an aide to Gadhafi's son, may be affected by the law.

Prime Minister Ali Zidan could also be among those impacted, though his position as a diplomat under Gadhafi might not be considered a "senior" post. He defected in 1980 and was elected to Libya's parliament before being voted by Jibril's bloc to head government.

Notably absent from the voting was the head of Congress, Mohammed al-Megarif, who may be ousted under the new law for having served as an ambassador under Gadhafi.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that while Libyans have a right to see officials who abused their positions under Gadhafi or committed crimes be removed from office, the law is too sweeping.

"This law is far too vague - potentially barring anyone who ever worked for the authorities during the four decades of Gaddafi's rule," Sarah Leah Whitson of HRW said in a Saturday statement.

Some Libyan activists say the vote is undemocratic since it took place under the threat of violence from militias. A Friday march in Tripoli against militia impunity was attacked by supporters of the armed groups.

The law has also been criticized because it excludes any possibility of judicial review. The Supreme Court, for example, had played a critical role in striking down last year a post-revolutionary law that had criminalized glorification of Gadhafi, a move many said contradicts the right to free speech.

Still, thousands of Libyans in Tripoli celebrated in the streets after the law was passed, waving the country's new flag that was the symbol of rebel fighters during the devastating eight-month civil war. Before the vote, protesters had placed images of people killed in the war on empty coffins laid outside parliament, a message that Gadhafi-era officials were not welcome in government.

The law may also affect a number of ambassadors, heads of governmental agencies, professors and media professionals on government payrolls.

Security officials such as the military's chief of staff Maj. Gen. Youssef Mangoush, once a special forces commander under Gadhafi, may also come under the law. He quit his post 10 years before the uprising began and sided with rebels during the war.

Soldiers including senior officers have in recent weeks demanded that Mangoush resign, accusing him of failing to control militias. If he is removed abruptly, it could disrupt attempts to build up a national army and police capable of replacing militias.

Borqiya Ghagha, a 26 year-old mother with the protesters outside parliament, said removing Gadhafi-era officials was a key demand of the revolution in which thousands died trying to oust the longtime dictator.

She said she voted for Jibril's party in parliament, but that they failed to bring about change.

"The whole platform turned out to be a lie," she said. "He used propaganda to have his party reach power and until now they have not put forth a concrete plan for Libya and instead used their power to bring forth Gadhafi-era officials to power."

Parliamentary spokesman Omar Humeidan said after a live broadcast of the vote that a committee will be formed to see how the new law will be implemented.

The committee will be comprised of judges and rights activists already serving on an "integrity commission" that vetted ministers for Gadhafi-era ties. That body will be dissolved. A new clause, though, requires members of the new vetting body to be at least 35 years old and have a degree in Islamic law, he said.

___

Batrawy reported from Cairo.

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Gadhafi's son appears in Libya court; case delayed

ZINTAN, Libya (AP) — Wearing a sky-blue safari suit and a pair of sandals, the imprisoned son of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi made his second court appearance this year on Thursday in a local court in Libya's western mountains where he is facing charges of harming state security.

Jailed in the town of Zintan, whose fighters captured him as he was fleeing to neighboring Niger, the trial of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi underlines Libya's ongoing state of lawlessness and lacking state authority in the face of a hodgepodge of militia groups.

With no national army or police in place since the fall of Gadhafi's regime in an eight-month civil war in 2011, successive governments have been too weak to either secure Seif al-Islam's imprisonment in the capital, Tripoli, or put pressure on his captors, a militia known as Abu Bakr al-Sadek, to hand him over to the central government.

The trial also comes at a time when the Libyan capital is locked in turmoil as militia groups blockaded, for a fifth day, the foreign and justice ministries, and stormed the interior ministry and state TV buildings. They want the country's parliament to pass a contentious law that would exclude Gadhafi-era officials from political life.

One version of the law, if passed, would dismiss a considerable slice of Libya's new rulers, who served under Gadhafi in the 1980s — regardless of their role during the early days of the uprising in 2011 that ended with the dictator's death in his hometown of Sirte.

Some rights activists decried the law as too harsh. Others see a purge of former Gadhafi-era officials as a necessary prerequisite to transitional justice and national reconciliation.

The rule of law is still beyond reach in the North African country, which for 42 years was governed by the dictator's whims and eccentricities. Courts are still paralyzed and security remains tenuous as unruly militias proliferate.

After the ministries were surrounded, pro-democracy activists urged the government to disarm and disband the militias and held protests denouncing the armed groups. However, a Thursday demonstration in Tripoli's Algeria Square saw low turnout, reflecting waning enthusiasm or fear among local residents.

The state, however, relies heavily on militias to serve as security forces since the police and military remain a shambles. The government pays the salaries of tens of thousands of militiamen who often pursue their own agendas — enforcing their own rule over neighborhoods and towns, engaging in kidnappings and extortion and fighting gun battles with rival militias. Some have hard-line Islamist ideologies and have become notorious for imposing strict interpretations of Islamic law.

With many fearing the situation will worsen, Zintan's fighters have felt encouraged to keep Seif al-Islam away from the capital.

"There is zero control in the capital," said town council spokesman Khaled al-Zintani. "Weapons are in everyone's hands and prison breaks are recurrent. Zintan is the safest place," he said, adding that the trial would be open to journalists and human rights groups.

While he insisted Seif al-Islam could be transferred to Tripoli if the government secured the area and requested it, he claimed that Seif al-Islam's life is under threat.

"There are parties who want to silence him because if he talked he will reveal the information that would stain them and would uncover corruption of those who cooperated with the regime at the last decade."

At Thursday's 15-minute court session, Gadhafi's longtime heir apparent seemed at times apathetic, smiling occasionally and revealing a missing front tooth as the judge adjourned the hearing until Sept. 19 to allow defense lawyers time to study the case. It was unclear how he lost the tooth.

The 40-year-old is the most heavyweight former regime member to be tried in Libya. Imprisoned in solitary confinement, according to al-Zintani, Seif al-Islam has spoken few words during his two court appearances.

"Fine," Seif al-Islam said derisively when the judge told him that two volunteer lawyers would be his defense team.

Seif al-Islam also is facing charges of attempting to escape prison and insulting Libya's new flag. The charges are linked to his June meeting with an International Criminal Court delegation accused of smuggling documents and a camera to him in his cell. The four-member team was detained by Zintan rebels but released after the ICC made an apology and pledged to investigate the incident.

The charges are separate from those by the International Criminal Court, which indicted Seif al-Islam for the murder and persecution of protesters in the uprising that ultimately toppled his father's regime in 2011.

According to filings by defense lawyers at the ICC, Seif al-Islam said he wants to be tried for alleged war crimes in the Netherlands, claiming that a trial in Libya would be tantamount to murder. "There will certainly be no justice in the case if the prosecution is based on evidence from torture," he said. "I am not afraid to die, but if you execute me after such a trial, you should just call it murder," he added.

The rest of Seif al-Islam's family, including his mother, his sister, two brothers and others, were granted asylum in Oman in March, moving there from Algeria, where they found refuge during the civil war.

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Gunmen surround Libya Foreign Ministry

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A Libyan military official says about 200 armed men are surrounding the Foreign Ministry building in Tripoli, demanding the ministry to reform and hire former fighters who helped overthrow former dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Esam al-Naas said 38 trucks, some mounted with machineguns, had surrounded the ministry on Sunday. The men allege that many supporters of the old regime are still occupying senior positions in the ministry and its missions abroad.

He said negotiations with the protesters are underway and that no one has entered the ministry building.

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Libya FM: Gadhafi family granted Oman asylum

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Libya's foreign minister says the widow of the late ruler Moammar Gadhafi and other family members have been granted asylum in Oman.

Mohamed Abdelaziz told reporters in Qatar on Monday that the family members had moved from Algeria following an asylum offer by Oman.

He gave no further details, but it's believed that Gadhafi's widow Safiya, three of the late leader's children as well as grandchildren left Algeria late last year.

Abdelaziz said it was "too soon" to discuss whether Libya would eventually seek their extradition. But he defended Oman's right to host the Gadhafi family members.

One of Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, was captured by rebels.

Omani officials have made no official comment.

Abdelaziz and other top regional envoys have been in Qatar ahead of an Arab League summit.

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Deaths in Libya from alcohol poison reaches 87

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libya's health minister says the death toll from drinking homemade alcohol that contained poisonous methanol has risen to 87.

Minister Nouri Doghman says 1,044 people have been harmed.

He said Sunday that 15 people were blinded, and others went into comas or suffered kidney failure. He said some people admitted themselves to the hospital too late, contributing to the increasing toll.

The deaths were first reported a week ago.

The dead range in age from 19 to 50 years old.

The sale and consumption of alcohol is banned in the conservative North African country. Like illegal drugs elsewhere, some Libyans turn to black market dealers to buy alcohol, which is often cooked in homes or deserted farms.

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Christians say they were tortured in Libya

CAIRO (AP) — Several Egyptian Christians recently released from detention by Libyan militias say they were tortured while in custody, the latest instance of abuse by the state-financed forces who handle security in many Libyan cities.

The Christians gave their accounts on Friday after returning to Egypt earlier this month. They were among scores detained by militias in the eastern city of Benghazi on charges of proselytization. One died in custody and his family says he was tortured.

Two days before, the head of the Libyan parliament's human rights committee resigned on television, claiming he received death threats. In a separate audio clip circulated on social media, Hassan al-Amin accused militias of abuses "much worse" than those committed under Moammar Gadhafi, toppled and killed in Libya's 2011 civil war.

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Egyptian Christian who died in Libya prison buried

ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) — An Egyptian Christian who died in prison in Libya after he was detained on suspicion of having proselytized there has been buried in a subdued ceremony in his hometown in southern Egypt.

Local church head Priest Baqi Sadaqa told the funeral congregation Wednesday that Ezzat Atallah's death earlier this week was a "crime against Egypt," and expressed concern about Islamists' rising clout in Egypt and Libya.

Sadaqa says Attalah was tortured. An Egyptian diplomat has said he likely died of natural causes. Attalah suffered from diabetes and heart troubles.

Scores of Egyptian Christians protested this week after reports emerged of Atallah's death and the detention of as many as 100 of others by Islamist militias on suspicion they were spreading Christianity in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

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Russia willing to consider making it easier for Libya to buy arms

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia is prepared to consider ways of making it easier for Libya's government to buy arms, but voiced serious concern about lifting an embargo on the North African state already awash with weapons, Russia's U.N. ambassador said on Monday.

Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said last week he planned to ask the U.N. Security council to lift the embargo, which was imposed at the start of an uprising in 2011 that culminated in the ouster of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who is president of the Security Council this month, said there were concerns about the Libyan government's lack of authority in the vast desert country and the spread of weapons its borders.

He said Libya had not yet made an official request for the arms embargo to be lifted, but the issue would likely be discussed by the 15-member council before a meeting on Libya later this month.

"Some council members do have reservations about lifting the arms embargo," Churkin told reporters, noting that Libya's government was already able to purchase weapons with the approval of a Security Council sanctions committee.

"Of course it can be regarded as a somewhat cumbersome procedure even though it's supposed to happen rather quickly," Churkin said. "I think we will also be looking at ways maybe to facilitate the possible acquisition of arms by the Libyan government short of full fledge lifting of the arms embargo."

The Libyan government has struggled to exert authority across the country. State security forces remain weak and militias, made up of former rebel fighters, hold the power on the ground.

Libya's official LANA news agency quoted army chief of staff Yussef al-Mangoush last week as saying Libya was planning to rebuild its army and wanted to sign contracts with international consultancies to help carry this out and assess what kind of equipment it needed in the future.

Libya's south has become a smuggling route for weapons which have reached al Qaeda militants deep in the Sahara desert. The lawless region is also a conduit for trafficking legal and contraband goods.

In the eastern city of Benghazi - the cradle of the revolt against Gaddafi - there has been a wave of violence against diplomats, military and police, including a September 11 attack last year that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

"It does give one pause and I think suggests a need to reflect very carefully on the advisability of lifting the arms embargo," Churkin said of the security concerns facing Libya.

Russia is still bristling that its abstention from a U.N. vote in 2011 allowed NATO air strikes to help Libyan rebels trying to topple Gaddafi. Russian officials accused the United States and its allies of overstepping their mandate.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Christopher Wilson)

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Libya: Gunmen storm private TV office

CAIRO (AP) — The official Libyan news agency says militia stormed the headquarters of a private TV network in Tripoli, looting and smashing equipment before abducting staffers.

LANA says some staffers were released following Thursday's attack on Al-Assama TV network, but that the militia was still holding the network top two managers.

It's unclear what prompted the attack.

The network is affiliated with a top political figure leading the largest coalition in parliament.

Mahmoud Shammam, who runs another TV network, told the official Libya TV that he tried unsuccessfully to reach government ministers and security officials to get their help.

Two years after the revolution that ousted and killed Libya's dictator Moammar Gadhafi, militiamen have filled in security vacuum, operating with impunity with the state relying on them as parallel security forces.

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Libya women face Islamist rise since Gadhafi fall

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — On her way back from her job as a lecturer at a university near Tripoli, Libyan poet Aicha Almagrabi was stopped by a group of bearded militiamen. They kicked her car, beat up her driver and threatened to do the same to her. Her offense: being alone in a car with men without a male relative as a guardian.

"You have violated the law of God," the militiamen told her, Almagrabi said.

"I said, I teach male students, so should I bring a male guardian with me to classroom?" she told The Associated Press.

Not that the university is immune to increasingly bold conservatives' views on the role of women. Almagrabi said one student recently told her she shouldn't be giving lectures because a woman's voice is "awra" — too intimate and shameful to be exposed in public.

The incident in February, which ended with the militiamen allowing Almagrabi to drive home, underlined the bitter irony for women in post-revolution Libya. Women played a major role in the 8-month civil war against dictator Moammar Gadhafi, massing for protests against his regime, selling jewelry to fund rebels, smuggling weapons across enemy lines to rebels.

But since Gadhafi's fall more than 18 months ago, women have been rewarded by seeing their rights hemmed in and restricted.

Women fear worse may yet to come. The country is soon to begin work drafting a new constitution, which activists fear will enshrine the relegation of women to second-class status, given the influence of hard-line Islamists.

"What we aim for right now is not to lose what we had," said Hanan al-Noussori, a lawyer in Libya's second biggest city, Benghazi. "I don't know which path we are heading in. But this is a matter of life or death for us."

Women can cite any number of worrying signs.

Libya's lawlessness is in part to blame. Islamist militiamen have grown more aggressive in unilaterally imposing their own rules on women. Militias, which were initially formed from rebel brigades that battled Gadhafi's troops, hold sway in many cities. They operate with impunity because, with national police and the army in a shambles, the state relies on them as parallel security forces. The state funds a security body made up of militias, trying to keep them loyal, but that has only made them larger and bolder.

More generally, the deeply conservative nature of much of Libyan society is being expressed more freely, often impinging on women. Powerful clerics speak out against the mixing of the sexes and Libya's political leaders themselves have set the tone for a more conservative stance on women.

Almagrabi says the opening salvo came right after Gadhafi's fall in late 2011, in one of the first addresses by then-head of state Mustafa Abdul-Jalil. He declared invalid all laws not conforming to Shariah and specifically vowed to end limits on polygamy. Islamic law allows men to take up to four wives, if they are treated equally, but under Gadhafi men had to get court permission and often permission from their first wife to do so.

"I felt like we were taken like spoils of war," Almagrabi said. "This nation rose up for the sake of the supremacy of the law and now there is a plan to push women back into their homes."

In February, the Supreme Constitutional Court consecrated Abdul-Jalil's announcement, formally ending any conditions on polygamy.

In 2012, at a televised ceremony celebrating the transfer of power to a newly elected parliament, Abdul-Jalil ordered a young presenter, Sarah al-Massalati, to leave the hall because she was not wearing a headscarf.

"We believe, respect and emphasize personal freedoms, but we are also a Muslim nation," Abdul-Jalil said at the time, to cheers from the audience. "I hope everyone understands these words."

Al-Massalati broke into tears. "I felt I was slaughtered," she later told Libyan media.

More recently, militiamen stormed a conference on women's rights and the constitution, held by Magdalene Ubaida and other women rights activists in Benghazi. The gunmen detained Ubaida and two of her colleagues. When they were released and heading to the airport to return to Tripoli, they were seized by more militiamen and beaten.

The incident came after one of the top security officials in Benghazi, Wanis el-Sharif, accused Ubaida of "spoling women" and criticizing Libya's top Muslim official, the grand mufti. The 25-year-old Ubaida, a co-founder of a rights organization called My Right, has since fled to Britain, saying she fears for her life.

The mufti, Sheik Sadeq al-Gharyani, took a hardline on women in a speech he delivered a year ago to a conference titled "the role of Muslim women in reconstruction."

"The state must put an end to the mingling of the sexes in the university, to close this door, this big door for corruption," he said. He urged school and university directors to start separating men and women without waiting for the state to order it.

He also cited a warning by the Prophet Muhammad that women who wear revealing clothing or don't cover their hair are "the people of hell."

Al-Gharyani is considered by some a hero of the revolution, since early on in the uprising against Gadhafi he issued a fatwa or religious edict permitting war against his regime.

Under Gadhafi's 42-year rule, women had a mixed bag.

Gadhafi often presented himself as a defender of women rights and at times made a point of defying strict interpretations of Shariah, since Islamists were among his main enemies.

Female lawyers say the country had one of the Arab world's most pro-women personal status laws, covering marriage, divorce and family law. Unlike Egypt and some other Arab nations, there is no "house of obedience" law by which courts can force women who flee their husbands to return. Women have children's custody rights after divorce.

Libyan society is generally conservative and tribal, and the majority of women wear headscarves. But at the same time, women make up a significant proportion of the work force, run their own businesses and were part of the armed forces. More women are pursuing postgraduate decrees than men.

But women lived under the same repressive regime as men under Gadhafi — and he often implicated women in regime abuses. He created a female security force of "nuns of the revolution," members of which participated in hangings of opposition figures in public or in extractions of confessions aired on TV.

Former aides have told lurid tales of Gadhafi's private life, reporting in books and interviews that he had young women brought forcibly to his Tripoli compound as sex slaves.

Women were prominent in the opposition to Gadhafi. For years, the mothers, sisters and wives of some 1,200 political prisoners massacred by the regime in the Abu Salim prison in 1996 held weekly protests at the security headquarters in Benghazi.

That eventually provided the spark for the revolution in February 2011. When one of the women's lawyers was arrested, they expanded their protest. When regime forces cracked down on them, the entire eastern half of Libya quickly rose up in revolt.

Since Gadhafi's fall, women's rights activists have seen at least one reassuring point. In the first free parliament elections last July, a liberal-leaning coalition came out the victors. The Muslim Brotherhood finished second while a party founded by a prominent jihadi-turned-politician got no seats. Women won 33 of parliament's 200 seats.

Now comes the drafting of the constitution. Rights activists worry that few if any women will be in the 60-member drafting assembly, which will be chosen either by national elections or by parliament.

There is also a consensus among all political parties, liberal and Islamist that the charter will enshrine Shariah as the main source of legislation and forbid any laws contradicting it. The last constitution Libya had — a 1951 charter that Gadhafi annulled — made no mention of Shariah.

Salwa Bugaighis, a rights lawyer, said debate over a Shariah clause is out of the question. "Shariah is a big taboo in Libya."

But she places her hopes on getting other articles into the document explicitly guaranteeing women's rights.

"We are fearful. We are worried and we are watching," she said.

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UK, FBI delegations visit Libya in Lockerbie probe

LONDON (AP) — Scotland's top legal officer says Scottish police and the FBI visited Libya this week as part of their investigation of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland said Friday that a four-person team of Scottish police and prosecutors, along with an FBI delegation, met senior Libyan officials in Tripoli Monday.

The trip was not announced in advance for security reasons.

Mulholland said the discussions "were positive and it is hoped there will be further progress as a result."

The December 1988 bombing of a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town killed 270 people, many of them American.

Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is the only person convicted over the attack. He was released from a Scottish prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds and died of cancer last year.

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