A Libyan army crackdown on lawless militias spread to the capital on Sunday after armed groups that have not been integrated into state institutions were ordered to disband and evacuate their bases. Commander in chief Yussef al-Mangush said on his Facebook page that the armed forces had dislodged a militia from a military complex on the highway to Tripoli International Airport, arresting militiamen and confiscating their weapons.

American ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three officials were killed when a mob attacked the US consulate in Benghazi on 12 September. The protest arguably emerged out of a long-standing sense of humiliation and anger at the West.

The early results of Libya's parliamentary election show a liberal party in first place in the country's first free vote since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. The election commission on Tuesday said the National Forces Alliance (NFA), led by Mahmoud Jibril, the former interim prime minister, secured 39 of the 80 open seats. Those projections also meant the NFA won only 20 per cent of seats in the 200-seat assembly.

Reporters Without Borders has unreservedly condemned the abduction and continuing detention of Libyan cameraman Abdelqader Fosouk and Youssuf Badi in Bani Walid (150 km southeast of Tripoli), one of the last pro-Gaddafi strongholds to fall to the rebels during last year’s war. They have been held since 7 July, the day of nationwide parliamentary elections which they had gone to cover in Bani Walid for Tobacts TV, a station based in Misrata, 100 km north of Bani Walid.