President orders militias to disband

The government has brought some militias nominally under the authority of the military (Getty Images)

Libya's President has ordered all of the country's militias to come under government authority or disband, a move that appeared aimed at harnessing popular anger against the powerful armed groups following the attack last week that killed the US ambassador.

The assault on the US mission in Benghazi, which left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead, has sparked an angry backlash among many Libyans against the myriad armed factions that continue to run rampant across the nation nearly a year after the end of the country's civil war.

On Friday, residents of Benghazi – the cradle of the Libyan revolution that toppled Colonel Gaddafi – staged a mass demonstration against the militias before storming the compounds of several armed groups in the city in an unprecedented protest to demand the militias dissolve.

On Saturday, President Mohammed el-Megaref told reporters that the militias, which the weak central government has relied upon since the fall of Gaddafi in October to provide security in neighbourhoods and at state facilities across the country, must fall under the umbrella of the national authorities or disband.

Mr Megaref said a joint operations room in Benghazi will co-ordinate between the various authorised armed brigades and the army.

Militias operating outside the "legitimacy of the state" will be dissolved, and the military and police will take control over those armed groups' barracks, he said.