The mayhem of Libya continues, enough so that it is difficult to stay up on everything going on there. But here're some recent events that give just a flavor. After the abduction last week of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan by Libyan security force members associated with the Interior Ministry, which took place in Tripoli, the capital, the action has shifted back to Benghazi, where insecurity is the order of the day.
-- Malta’s foreign ministry ordered its consul, Joe Pirotta, to leave Benghazi after what it described as a credible threat to his safety. Pirotta and his wife flew back to Malta on Saturday.
-- A day earlier, the Swedish-Finnish consulate in Benghazi was hit by a car bomb. The building suffered extensive damage, but no one was hurt.
-- On Tuesday, a parcel bomb exploded in a flower stall next to Benghazi’s private Marwa Hospital. There were no deaths or injuries mainly because it was a public holiday and few people were around.
-- Assassinations of military, judicial and security officials continued unabated, bringing to well 100 men who've been murdered since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Two army soldiers had their throats slit Tuesday morning by suspected militants as they were sleeping at Benghazi Joint Operations Room battalion’s base at Ras Al Mingar. Also on Tuesday policeman Islam Faraj Assosa died instantly when a bomb blew up under his car in Benghazi. Sheikh Abdussalam Al-Hassi, the imam who was gravely injured when a bomb blew up under his car on Friday, died on Sunday. The imam was said to have been a Salafist, a group that is not particularly popular in Benghazi at present, but he was not outspoken. Although he had criticized the wave of killings in the city he had not accused anyone in particular.
Rumors that the government would declare a state of emergency in Benghazi have been denied by the authorities.