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Militants target civil activists in Libya

Rebel militias have killed at least 35 prominent civil society figures and kidnapped countless others this year as part of a greater campaign of violence in the absence of any central police force in many parts of Libya.
Members of forces loyal to former general Khalifa Haftar ride in a truck in the Benina area, east of Benghazi October 24, 2014. Violent clashes have taken place over the past few weeks between these forces loyal to Haftar and both the Islamist group, the Shura Council of Libyan Revolutionaries, and an alliance of former anti-Gaddafi rebels Ansar al-Sharia, for control of the airport nearby. The two latter groups have now withdrawn and the area is  being controlled by these forces loyal to Haftar. Libya's ar

Nader Elgadi has captured the outcry against militia violence through his camera lens. Elgadi, a 27-year-old Libyan activist, attended his last demonstration in Tripoli on July 26, 2014. After documenting residents contesting the rule of militias vying for control of the country, he headed home to secure his photos and drop off his camera. When he left again late that afternoon, he was abducted and taken to the outskirts of the city.

“I couldn’t see anything,” Elgadi told Al-Monitor, “but I knew from their accent that my abductors were from Tripoli.”

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