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Police helicopter downed by militants in eastern Libya, one killed

06 July 2012 21:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A police helicopter was downed Friday by unidentified militants in Libya’s second largest city of Benghazi, leaving at least one person killed, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

A police helicopter carrying elections material was downed by militants allegedly supporting autonomy in eastern Libya, the sources said, adding that the identity of the victim is yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, Libya’s Press Solidarity quoted an official of the High Electoral Committee as saying that the killed was a member of the committee and the pilot on board survived.

The incident came one day before Libyans head to cast their ballots for a national congress, which is expected to replace the ruling National Transitional Council to supervise the government and oversee the drawing up of a new constitution following the overthrow of four-decade ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

The forthcoming polls are boycotted by Libya’s self-proclaimed autonomous eastern region, which said it will not give fair representation to the east and aims at marginalizing the region.

A depot in Libya’s eastern city of Ajdabiya was set on fire on Thursday, leaving all electoral material in storage destroyed. Also on Thursday, the self-proclaimed Cyrenaica autonomous council in eastern Libya closed two oil output ports near Benghazi, to protest against the upcoming congress elections.