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| In this undated handout photo released by the family of Omran Shaaban, Shaaban receives treatment from a doctor at a hospital in France. Less than a year after helping drag Moammar Gadhafi from a drainage ditch, a 22-year-old former rebel was captured by the slain leader's supporters who beat, cut and killed him, his family says. The death of Omran Shabaan has brought calls for revenge and highlights the challenges facing Libya _ pockets of support for the deposed regime, the new government's inability to rein in militias and the potential for violence like the killing of the U.S. ambassador. ( |
MISRATA, Libya (AP) -- One of the young Libyan rebels credited with capturing Moammar Gadhafi in a drainage ditch nearly a year ago died Tuesday of injuries after being kidnapped, beaten and slashed by the late dictator's supporters - the latest victim of persistent violence and instability in the North African country.
The death of Omran
Shaaban, who had been hospitalized in France, raised the prospect of
even more violence and score-settling, with the newly elected National
Congress authorizing police and the army to use force if necessary to
apprehend those who abducted the 22-year-old and three companions in
July near the town of Bani Walid.
Libya is
battling lingering pockets of support for the old regime, and its
government has been unable to rein in armed militias in a country rife
with weapons. Earlier this month, a demonstration at the U.S. Consulate
in the eastern city of Benghazi turned violent, killing four Americans,
including the U.S. ambassador.
Shaaban was
praised as a "dutiful martyr" by the National Congress, although his
family says he never received a promised reward of 1 million Libyan
dinars ($800,000) for capturing Gadhafi on Oct. 20, 2011, in the former
leader's hometown of Sirte. The eccentric dictator was killed later that
day by revolutionary fighters.
The Libyan
government said it would honor Shaaban with a funeral befitting a hero.
His body was greeted at the airport in his hometown of Misrata by more
than 10,000 people for a procession to a soccer stadium for funeral
prayers.
Photos on social media websites
showed a wooden coffin with a glass window that revealed Shaaban's face,
with white gauze covering his head.
In the
capital of Tripoli, several hundred protesters gathered outside the
headquarters of the National Congress to demand that the government
avenge Shaaban's death.
Shaaban's family said
that he and three friends had been en route home to the western city of
Misrata from a vacation in July when they were attacked by gunmen in an
area called el-Shimekh near Bani Walid.
Shaaban and his friends, who like many Libyans were armed, fired back, the family said.
Two
bullets hit Shaaban, and he was paralyzed from the waist down, his
relatives said. The men were captured by militiamen from Bani Walid, a
town of about 100,000 people that remains a stronghold of Gadhafi
loyalists and is isolated from the rest of Libya.
President
Mohammed el-Megarif visited Bani Walid this month and secured the
release of Shaaban and two of his companions. A fourth is still being
held.
When Shaaban was finally brought home,
he was "skin and bones" - still paralyzed, frail and slipping in and out
of consciousness, according to his brother, Abdullah Shaaban.
"It
was clear he was beaten a lot," Abdullah Shaaban said. "His entire
chest was sliced with razors. His face had changed. It wasn't my brother
that I knew."
Omran Shaaban later was flown to France for medical treatment.
Shaaban,
the second youngest in a family of nine children, was a member of Libya
Shield, a loose coalition of the country's largest militias relied on
by the Defense Ministry.
Khalifa al-Zawawi, the former head of Misrata's local council, said the government reneged on paying the reward to Shaaban.
Abdullah Shaaban said his brother did not mind, saying he considered capturing Gadhafi to be his national duty.
Libya's
president released a statement Tuesday vowing that those responsible
for the violence against Omran Shaaban would be punished.
But
apprehending and disarming the militants in Bani Walid are among the
most daunting tasks facing the government. The town is heavily armed
with rocket-propelled grenades, automatic weapons and artillery left
over from last year's civil war.
Residents of
Bani Walid say that pictures of Gadhafi are displayed during weddings
and youths play his speeches on their cars' stereos. Students refrain
from singing Libya's new national anthem and teachers refuse to follow
the revised curriculum.
Bani Walid fighters
were blamed for many of the sniper attacks, shelling, rapes and other
violence against the city of Misrata during the civil war, and there
were new calls Tuesday from residents of Misrata for vengeance against
Bani Walid.
Shaaban's eldest brother, Walid,
insists there will be justice for the family, regardless of whether the
government is the one to administer it.
"I
plan to pursue his rights legally and join if there is a military
incursion. We are going to death, God willing," Walid Shaaban said.
Family friend Abu-Shaala echoed that sentiment.
"If the government does not go in, we are going in," he said. "We are all patient. But our patience has limits."
