DHAKA: NATO agreed on Monday to a Libyan request to advise it on strengthening its security forces, lending support to a country where powerful militias have stoked fears of a slide into anarchy.

Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan asked NATO for technical advice and help with training in May and the alliance later sent experts to the country to see how it could help.

The request for help was given added urgency by Zeidan’s brief kidnapping by militia members this month.

Two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in an Arab Spring-inspired uprising, Libya’s fragile government is crippled by infighting and unable to disarm former militia fighters in a country awash with weapons from his four-decade rule.

‘Allies have agreed to respond positively to the request made by the Libyan prime minister for NATO to provide advice on defence institution-building in Libya,’ NATO said in a statement, reports The Jerusalem Post.

BDST: 2139 HRS, OCT 21, 2013
RoR/JCK