{Libya\u2019s UN-backed unity government on Sunday slammed the creation by armed groups of a national guard rival to its own Presidential Guard in the capital Tripoli.}<\/p>\n
The Government of National Accord (GNA) said it considered the creation of the Libyan National Guard to be \u201can attempt to form a parallel body to the Presidential Guard\u201d it has formed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese groups and those supporting it are considered to be outlaws,\u201d the GNA said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they will be treated as such by the security and judiciary bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The GNA warned that the formation of a rival guard was an attempt \u201cto lead the capital into bloody armed conflict.\u201d On Thursday, armed groups mostly from the western city of Misrata, announced the creation of the Libyan National Guard\u201d to continue the fight against Daesh, as well as to secure state institutions and diplomatic missions.<\/p>\n
But they did not say whether or not it would support the GNA, which has struggled to assert its authority across Libya since taking office in the capital last year.<\/p>\n
Local sources have said militias in the Libyan National Guard include backers of Khalifa Ghweil, leader of a self-proclaimed \u201cGovernment of National Salvation\u201d which has refused to recognize the GNA.<\/p>\n
A GNA source has said most of the groups involved in the Libyan National Guard had participated in a seven-month battle to retake the city of Sirte from Daesh last year.<\/p>\n
Misrata\u2019s militias, which control much of western Libya, led the battle to retake the former Daesh bastion but say the GNA stopped backing them after Sirte fell in December.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the US said it had noted with \u201cserious concern reports that numerous tactical vehicles from an organization claiming to be the Libyan National Guard have entered Tripoli.\u201d<\/p>\n
Libya has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 toppling of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with rival militias and administrations vying for control of the oil-rich country.
\nA rival authority based in the country\u2019s far east has also refused to recognize the GNA since it started working in Tripoli in March last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Libya\u2019s UN-backed unity government on Sunday slammed the creation by armed groups of a national guard rival to its own Presidential Guard in the capital Tripoli.} The Government of National Accord (GNA) said it considered the creation of the Libyan National Guard to be \u201can attempt to form a parallel body to the Presidential Guard\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[2629],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-arab-news"],"bylines":[{"id":2629,"name":"Arab News","slug":"arab-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2629,"name":"Arab News","slug":"arab-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32522"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32522"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}