Free Republic

CAIRO: Libya’s Islamist militias said Sunday they have consolidated their hold on Tripoli and its international airport, driving out rival militias to the outskirts of the capital following a weekslong battle for control of the strategic hub. ...

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is temporarily freezing its operations in Libya to reevaluate the security situation after a Swiss staffer was killed by gunmen. "We are freezing movement (of personnel) for the time being to analyze the situation so we can adapt our operations," ICRC spokesman David-Pierre Marquet told AFP on Thursday. He said there were no plans to permanently halt the organization's operations in Libya. The announcement came a day after Michael Greub, a 42-year-old Swiss citizen heading the ICRC's office in Libya's third city Misrata, was killed by gunmen in Sirte, 200 kilometres...

Libya seems to be heading towards a major civil war, waiting for its next strong man to put a lid on the chaos and control the various parties. The Libyan government is unable to control its territory. The situation in the country has deteriorated so much that the US suspended training by US special forces after a local militia stole a cache of American-provided weapons. According to a report published in the British newspaper, The Times, on Friday, quoting Olivier Guitta, the director of the London-based Henry Jackson Society think-tank, French, American and Algerian special forces are on their way...

Libya marks the second anniversary of the death of Muammar Gaddafi with the country on the brink of a new civil war and fighting raging in the eastern city of Benghazi, birthplace of its Arab spring revolution. Violence between radical militias and regular forces broke out on Friday night and continued yesterday, while the capital Tripoli is braced for fallout from the kidnapping earlier this month of prime minister Ali Zaidan. Federalists in Cyrenaica, home to most of Libya's oil, open their own independent parliament in Benghazi this week, in a step that may herald the breakup of the country....

BENGHAZI, Libya – The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East says President Barack Obama has invited the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council to open an office in Washington D.C., but he stopped short of formal recognition. Tuesday's statement by Jeffrey Feltman comes hours after NATO launched its most intense bombardment yet against Moammar Gadhafi's stronghold of Tripoli.