Tripoli: An independent television station in Libya says gunmen have killed one of its anchors in the eastern city of Benghazi.
The station said Ezz Al Deen Kossad was shot dead on Friday while he was driving his car in Benghazi. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the killing.
Kossad presented a show called ‘Let’s Try Together’ on Libya’s Al Hurra TV channel, launched during the 2011 civil war that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
After announcing his death, Al Hurra stopped its normal broadcast and started airing recitations of the Quran.
Benghazi has been hit by a wave of political killings in recent days. Victims have included political activists, judges and members of security agencies. Security agencies remain unable to secure Libya, which is awash in heavy weaponry and militias following the civil war.
Meanwhile, Libya’s army said it had deployed reinforcements in the capital Tripoli and its suburbs to bolster security after weeks of deadly violence.
Military vehicles deployed
An AFP correspondent said he saw more than 100 armoured troop carriers and military vehicles mounted with machineguns and anti-aircraft guns rumble into Tripoli late Thursday.
“Army units have been deployed in the capital and its suburbs to secure them during the Eid Al Fitr holiday and thereafter,” the military said in a statement on its Facebook page.
The official Libyan news agency Lana said troops were deployed in several parts of the capital and its suburbs in a bid to “reassure people during Eid Al Fitr.”
The army said the deployment was ordered by Nuri Bousahmein, the president of the General National Congress, Libya’s highest political authority.
Over the past few weeks, Tripoli and its surroundings have been rocked by attacks and clashes between rival militias who helped topple Gaddafi.
Libya’s new authorities have struggled to re-establish order and form a professional army since Gaddafi’s overthrow and their efforts to woo militiamen to join the security forces have been scorned.
