Armed groups deploy in Libyan capital

Tripoli: Armed groups deployed on Tuesday in suburbs of Libya’s capital, witnesses and local media said, as the country awaited the postponement of a presidential election supposed to take place in three days.

On Tuesday morning, images posted online showed a tank and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns in Fornaj district, close to the university campus, where some roads were blocked with piles of sandbags guarded by armed men.

Schools and the University of Tripoli closed as a precaution but there were no firefights, residents said. The mobilisations came as Libyans await an official announcement that presidential elections, set for Friday, have been postponed.

The vote is meant to cap a United Nations-led peace process aiming to move the oil-rich North African country past a decade of conflict since the country’s 2011 revolt. But the electoral process has been undermined by divisions over its legal basis and the candidacies of divisive figures.