Tripoli: Interior Minister Fawzi Abdul Ali has warned that Islamists amount to a “major force” in Libya both in terms of numbers and arms, following a surge in violence including attacks on shrines.

“These people are a major force in terms of numbers and the equipment they have in Libya,” said the minister as he reversed a decision to resign that he had taken after accusations of lax security.

“These people have arms and big groups. We must not close our eyes to this,” the minister told a press conference on Tuesday, ruling out a head-on confrontation with Islamist hardliners.

“As for me, I am not going to go into a losing battle and will not kill people because of a tomb,” he said, referring to the destruction of shrines by the hardliners as “a very complicated business” that required dialogue.

But he would take them on if instructed by Libya’s elected assembly.

Abdul Ali stressed that the security services in their current state lacked the necessary equipment to enforce order in the face of the proliferation of arms in Libya.

Many of the heavily armed revolutionaries who defeated Muammar Gaddafi’s regime last year have refused to be integrated into the security forces.

“The amount of arms in Libya exceeds all estimates. Once we have a real army which can deal with groups that possess heavy armaments, the interior ministry will be able to carry out its mission,” he said.

Abdul Ali said he was withdrawing his resignation, two days after having announced he was standing down.

“When I submitted my resignation, I thought I would be relieving many people. But it seems that my resignation will further complicate security and I have decided to withdraw it,” he said.

An aide told AFP on Sunday that Abdul Ali quit “to protest against congressmen criticising the government and to defend the revolutionaries,” referring to former rebels who now form part of Libya’s security services.

That same day the newly elected General National Congress, or national assembly, accused the interior ministry’s High Security Committee of being lax or even implicated in the destruction of shrines, including those of Sufis.

Dozens of people took to the streets of Tripoli on Sunday and Monday to protest the violence, which also included double car bombings in Tripoli that killed two people last week.

Islamist hardliners last Saturday bulldozed part of the mausoleum of Al Shaab Al Dahman, close to the centre of the Libyan capital.

The demolition came a day after hardliners blew up the mausoleum of Shaikh Abdul Salem Al Asmar in Zliten, 160km to the east.

According to witnesses, another mausoleum, that of Shaikh Ahmad Al Zarruq, has been destroyed in the port of Misrata, 200km east of Tripoli.