Libyans storm militia bases in Benghazi

At least four persons have died and 20 injured when demonstrators in Benghazi attempted to storm the headquarters of militias based in the eastern Libyan city.

Protesters on Friday night stormed the headquarters of the Ansar al-Sharia militia and evicted its fighters from its bases in what appeared to be part of a co-ordinated sweep of militia headquarters buildings by police, government troops and activists following a mass public demonstration against armed groups earlier in the day. 

Ansar al-Sharia has been linked to the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi last week in which the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans died. The group denies any involvement.

Chanting "Libya, Libya," hundreds of demonstrators entered the compound, pulling down militia flags and torching a vehicle inside the headquarters, Ansar al-Sharia's main base in Benghazi - once an internal security base under former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

People in the crowd waved swords and even a meat cleaver, shouting "No more al-Qaeda!" and "The blood we shed for freedom shall not go in vain!"

They tore down the banner of group while chanting "no no to the brigades".

Many Libyans have expressed outrage at the attack on the US consulate.

Libya's interim government has since come under renewed and intense pressure to rein in well-armed extremist militia groups and force them to disband.

Friday's march was the largest seen in Benghazi - considered the heartland of Libya's uprising - since Col Gaddafi was deposed.

Armed militia groups which helped to defeat Gaddafi remain powerful in many parts of the country.

They are better armed and more numerous than Libya's official army, and there have been reports of militias intimidating and carrying out killings against rivals.

Friday night's raids followed protests earlier in the day when around 30,000 protesters from the "Save Benghazi" group marched through the city's al-Kish Square, which was a key battleground in the uprising that overthrew Gaddafi.

At the same time, some 3,000 supporters of the ultraconservative Ansar al-Sharia group gathered.

Waving black Islamic flags, they chanted against a video made by an Egyptian-American that mocked Islam and cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by a French satirical weekly.

"Our demonstration is in support of the messenger of God, and to condemn the abuse of Islam and Muslims carried out by any given country, chief among them France and the US," a group member told the AFP news agency.

"It wasn't enough for them to produce a film denigrating the Prophet in America, off goes France insisting on publishing cartoons in its newspaper that are offensive to our prophet. We will never tolerate that."