TRIPOLI, Libya — Nearly 2,000 demonstrators gathered in the Libyan capital on Monday in support of a Swiss-based Libyan businessman who had called for a rally to reject the leadership of both main sides in the divided country.
Basit Igtet has sought political entree in the oil-rich country before and recently gathered thousands of Face-book followers and proposed himself as a potential leader for the country, which is split between rival militia-backed factions in the east and west.
“No Hifter, no Serraj, Igtet is here,” demonstrators chanted, referring to Fayez Serraj, the prime minister-designate of the United Nations-backed government in Tripoli, and Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the commander of Libya’s self-styled national army, based in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Both of those sides opposed the rally, and hundreds of counterdemonstrators attended and shouted anti-Igtet slogans.
Igtet was present at one point, but he did not speak. As night fell, opposing sides clashed with fistfights before security forces intervened and separated them with dozens of vehicles.
Libya sank into chaos after the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed leader Moammar Gadhafi.