TRIPOLI, Libya — Driving trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, dozens of militiamen surrounded the Justice Ministry in Tripoli on Tuesday, the third day of confrontation between the government and armed groups in the Libyan capital.
It was the latest in a series of shows of force by militias, most of which have ended without bloodshed but interrupted the country's political transition and created a climate of intimidation and a weakened state.
Militias, some of which evolved out of the rebel groups that overthrew Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, say they are rising up to force officials from the deposed dictator's regime from holding government posts, according to the state-own news agency LANA.
However, Libyan democracy activists say that they are bullying the government of Prime Minister Ali Zidan, who has vowed to restore the authority of the state, to prevent him from disbanding them.
On Tuesday, militiamen sealed off the roads to the Justice Ministry with their trucks, closed the building and turned away visitors.
On Sunday, about 200 armed men surrounded the Foreign Ministry and a day later, armed men stormed the Interior Ministry and a state-owned television station al-Wataniya TV, forcing its employees out and stopping its live broadcast.
The unrest comes as Libya's legislature, the General National Congress, debates a draft law for "political isolation" which effectively filters out those who held any post under Gadhafi from political life.