The el-Soumoud Front, the brigade led by Salah Badi, originally from Misrata, has surrounded the government headquarters and the Presidential Council since midnight. There has been no reaction from the presidency or the government at this time regarding these events.
Clashes took place during the night, but the forces responsible for the security of official buildings withdrew to prevent the situation from escalating. Dozens of military vehicles and armed men belonging to this brigade have been gathering since Thursday morning, December 16, in the center of the capital and on the Corniche road.
Salah Badi, a militia leader close to the Muslim brothers and representing the hardest wing of this movement, is not at his first power grab. Already in 2014 he had put his men in the street to denounce the results of the legislative elections. Since then, he has been subject to sanctions by the United States and the UN Security Council. This time, he has announced that he will try everything to derail the presidential election, which is still officially scheduled for December 24.
In a video released shortly before the attack on Tripoli, he appeared armed and threatening all those in power who were in favor of holding the elections. For him, the current leaders are “traitors, enemy agents and scum. He threatened to close down all state institutions that, according to him, serve foreign countries more than they serve Libya.
He also denounced the special adviser to the UN secretary-general, the American Stephanie Williams, who, he claims, remained silent in the face of the attack on Tripoli two years ago by Khalifa Haftar after an American green light.