Libya’s Minister of Interior, Fawzi Abdul Ali, tendered his resignation on 26 August following a series of violent attacks on Sufi shrines in Tripoli and Zliten.

Groups of unknown assailants, suspected of being ultra-conservative Salafi Muslims, destroyed a sacred Sufi Muslim shrine in Zliten on Friday. A day later they razed the Shaab mosque, opposite the Radission Mahari hotel close to the seafront in central Tripoli, which contained several dozen Sufi graves including that of a revered Libyan Islamic scholar.

Libya’s new General National Congress (GNC), which was elected last month, held an emergency meeting on 26 August to discuss the attacks and criticised the failure of the state security forces to prevent them. The destruction of the Shaab mosque took place in broad daylight.

An aide to the interior minister was quoted as saying that Abdul Ali had “submitted his resignation in protest against the unacceptable words from the National Congress,” but said that the Prime Minister had not yet accepted the resignation.