Elected body to take over job in Libya

TRIPOLI - Agence France-Presse

Libya’s interim authorities said they will hand over power to a newly elected congress on Aug. 8, less than a year after its fighters overthrew the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

“We affirm that August 8, will be the day that power will be transferred peacefully,” Saleh Darhoub, spokesman for the outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC), told journalists in Tripoli early yesterday.

Libyans cast ballots on July 7 in their first free election since a popular uprising last year that escalated into a civil war and ousted the regime of now slain dictator Gadhafi. They elected a 200-member legislative assembly comprising party and independent representatives, which will replace the NTC and lead the country until fresh elections can be held on the basis of a new constitution.

Explosives match

The transition comes against a backdrop of heightened insecurity. Three men suspected of planning bomb attacks were killed in a sting operation outside the capital on Aug. 5. “The brain of the operation refused to surrender and fought fiercely which resulted in the death of three people, including him,” Darhoub said.

Five members of the interior ministry brigade who carried out the bust were wounded. The clashes took place in a farm in Al-Aziziya, 40 kilometers south of the capital, he added. Darhoub said that the explosives discovered in the area matched those found by security forces that had foiled “seven bombing plots”. He declined to give details on possible targets.