Tripoli’s historic municipality building was just set ablaze by a group of rioters after they set fire to several other buildings, including a courthouse, a dessert shop, and more.
“Don’t burn your city! This is your city! Go to the homes of the politicians, but don’t burn Tripoli!” yelled a protester condemning the vandalism to MTV reporter Alain Dargham.
“We can’t believe what we are seeing. It is very upsetting what we are witnessing now,” said Dargham.
Dargham was surrounded by Tripolitan protesters who were looking out disappointingly as their municipality was being engulfed in flames.
“This is our municipality, for God’s sake,” one said with sorrow in his voice.
According to the Mayor of Tripoli, Riad Yamak, the fire trucks were delayed because they were stopped near the municipality and their keys were seized. They eventually made it to the scene.
A member of the municipality, Khaled Tadmori, asserted that these acts do not reflect the desires of the city’s protesters.
“This is not the doing of the children of our city,” he said to local media insinuating that there are insurgents among the protesters. “The question is where is the army?”
It is reported that rioters also attempted to storm and burn yet another building, the AZM School, but were stopped.
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