Tripolitania and Tripoli
The ongoing standoff over Beni Walid has again dominated reporting in western Libya during the last seven days. Violent clashes were reported to have resumed around Beni Walid on 11 October, which local officials claimed to have killed at least ten people. Three National Army soldiers were also reported to have died in clashes near Al Mardoum, 10 km outside Beni Walid, with 35 others reported wounded. The Egyptian daily Al Youm Al Sabiya reported that the dead and wounded soldiers were part of the Shield of Libya Brigade. On 13 October, Al Youm Al Sabiya reported that other National Army units were preparing to replace Shield of Libya Brigade elements encircling Beni Walid. The report cited the Shield of Libya Brigade forces a one of the main areas of resentment within Beni Walid. In a separate reported a spokesman for the Army Chief of Staff, claimed that military forces do not yet have orders to intervene in Beni Walid, but to remain concentrated on the outskirts.
Abdul Hamid Al Sanduli, the head of the Beni Walid political and media committee, claimed that most of the shelling targeting Beni Walid had hit residential areas, such as Al Zara where he said three children have died. On 12 October, authorities in Beni Walid reported that a group of elders and activists tasked by the National Assembly with entering Beni Walid to negotiate a settlement had been refused entry by Misratan brigades. The group was turned around at the Wadi Rishrash checkpoint near Tarhuna. However, on 14 October Al Watan Libya reported the arrival of a reconciliation committee in Beni Walid and that the committee had held negotiations which were close to securing the agreement of the town’s elders to release prisoners, open safe corridors, and stop the killing.
The daily Akhbar Libya Al Jadida reported on 15 October that the National Army succeeded in delivering humanitarian supplies to Beni Walid. Libya Al Mustakbal also reported the release of eighteen Egyptian workers being held in Beni Walid. The daily said the National Army secured their release but did not specify how. The Egyptian daily Al Youm Al Sabiya reported that the Egyptians had been taken by the Khamis Al Qadhafi Brigade. Some Libyan social media sites have claimed that chemical weapons are being used in Beni Walid by government forces, claiming pictures of dozens of people admitted to a local hospital for respiratory problems. While such reported cannot be ruled out, it is considered extremely unlikely that such weapons would be used. Similar claims were made during clashes around al-Kufra in late June. It is more likely that this is propaganda intended to discredit the army and apply pressure to the national government.
Press Solidarity reported a carjacking and assault against a group of Omani embassy employees on 9 October, citing an official from the Ministry of Interior who said that four armed men stopped the group in the in the Al Serraj neighbourhood of Tripoli and forcibly stole the vehicle. A separate report claimed that Omani embassy staff were also involved in another carjacking on 12 October, when an embassy official was forced out of his car in Hay Al Andalus by two armed men. Libyan media reported that a demonstration occurred outside of the Algerian embassy on 15 October after the Libyan soccer team lost to Algeria. A number of demonstrators were reported to have climbed the walls of the embassy and burned an Algerian flag. Press Solidarity claimed that the demonstrators also took issue with the continued presence of Aisha Al Qadhafi in Algeria.
The Libya Herald reported that a night-time curfew was imposed in Sirte on 13 October in response to clashes between youths from the Warfalla tribe and Misratah. The report stated that civilians and vehicles would be forbidden on roads after 10 pm and that the army would be deployed to police the curfew. According to the report, there have been four to five significant clashes in Sirte since the beginning of the siege of Beni Walid in late September.