Calm returned Monday night to Tripoli International Airport in Libya after it was paralyzed for several hours by former rebels who surrounded the main track. Libyan security forces regained control of the premises.
One of the militia leaders said that ten people were injured. He did not provide further details.
Earlier, gunmen had surrounded the airport demanding the release of one of their leaders, abducted Sunday evening. They believed he was held inside the airport.
According to a customs official at the airport, some flights were canceled and some were diverted to the Mitiga military airport of Tripoli.
The Aoufea Brigade leader, Colonel Abu al Oegueila Hebeichi, was abducted by armed rebels while traveling in Tarhouna late Sunday evening, said a spokesman for the Transitional National Council. The Aoufea militiamen at the airport have deployed armored vehicles on the, said an official of the Ministry of Defence in Tripoli. A member of the Aoufea Brigade conveyed their leader is being held somewhere in the airport, after being abducted Sunday evening by the Security Committee of Tripoli for unknown reasons.
This incident is the latest in a series of events that illustrate the government's failure to assert its authority on militiamen who refuse to disarm.
