Jordan police fire tear gas at Libyan protesters

AMMAN - Agence France-Presse

A Libyan protester speaks to Jordanian forces standing guard in front of the Libyan Embassy.

Jordanian anti-riot police fired tear gas yesterday to break up a crowd of angry Libyans who attacked Tripoli’s embassy with stoned, over unpaid medical bills.

“Around 200 Libyans demonstrated this morning outside the Libyan embassy in Amman to demand their government pay their medical bills and other expenses,” a police statement said.

“When embassy officials refused to see them, the demonstrators threw stones at the mission, other buildings and cars in the area,” it said, adding that the Libyans also attacked police who tried to disperse them.

“A suitable force had to be used to stop them,” police said, without providing further details. An Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene said police fired tear gas to disperse them. After the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in Libya’s conflict, tens of thousands of Libyans were flown for hospital treatment in Jordan. Amman is now demanding Tripoli pay more than $200 million in medical and hotel bills.
 
Last week, around 140 Libyans were briefly detained after rioting and torching sports centre at the Jordanian police academy in Amman where they had been training.