Abdullah al-Thani will replace Mohammed Al-Barghathi as Libya's new Defense Minister, after Al-Barghathi resigned following violent clashes and raids by rival militias on a number of ministries in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The attacks took place last May and June, and left five people dead and at least one hundred more injured.
Mr Al-Thani was approved and sworn in by Libya’s National General Congress (GNC) on Monday with the aim of putting an end to the numerous attacks on security forces by gun-carrying militias.
During the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, Al-Thani, a professor at the military college for seven years, was targeted by the secret police and detained on a number of occasions for his brother's alleged criticism of the regime’s intervention in the internal affairs of neighbouring Chad.
Libya's new authorities are working to establish military and security institutions capable of restoring law, order and state authority in the face of militias, and the authorities and Libyan people are hopeful that Mr Al-Thani can achieve that.
(Source: The Tripoli Post)
