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Prime Minister Ali Zeidan

TRIPOLI – Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan flew to Benghazi for urgent talks with local security heads on Monday evening, after clashes between the army and a Salafi militia killed nine people and injured some 50 in the eastern city. Online newspaper Libya Herald said the army has declared a state of emergency after clashing with Ansar Al-Sharia militants in the morning.

Hundreds of citizens in Benghazi protested the violence, calling for a general strike “until Benghazi has been cleansed of Ansar Al-Sharia and all other unofficial armed groups.”

Many parts of Libya remain plagued by a lack of security after the 2011 civil war due to the existence of war-time local “military councils” that are not integrated into the national army and reluctant to give up weapons.

On 15 November, a group of militants opened fire at hundreds of protesters in Tripoli who demanded the armed group from the western city of Misrata move out of the capital, killing at least 43 people and wounding about 460 others. – Xinhua.