On 4 September, after the Attorney General issued an arrest warrant addressed to the Minister of Interior (MoI) against Muhammed al-Baroun aka al-Far on charges of involvement in the assassination of the commander of the Libyan Naval Academy, Abdurrahman Milad aka al-Bija, the 1st Support Force Zawiyya refused to comply with the arrest warrant, claiming that the accusations are unsubstantiated, and threatened that they have ‘the ability to fight’. The Attorney General directed the Western Coast Military District Commander (and Libyan Army Deputy CoS) Salaheddin al-Namroush to execute the arrest warrant for al-Far.
The Awlad Abu Hmeira tribe, al-Bija’s tribe in Zawiyya, issued a statement holding the Government of National Unity (GNU) responsible because the perpetrators belonged to an agency affiliated with it (the Counter Security Threats Agency) and demanded the dissolution of this agency. Relatives of al-Bija went out on the streets in Zawiyya, demanding justice over his murder.
In the wake of al-Far’s arrest, there was an uptick of violence and tit-for-tat assassination attempts in Zawiyya.
In the evening of 6 September, followers of al-Far reportedly assassinated Ali Abdussalam Bin Hassan, a member of the rival al-Kabwat militia in Zawiyya. Thereafter, the al-Kabwat attempted to assassinate Sanad al-Baroun, a brother of al-Far, but failed to succeed. In the aftermath, fighting started between the 1st Support Force Zawiyya and the al-Kabwat.
On 7 September, there were street protests in Zawiyya al-Saqr (south of the Coastal Road) against the murder of Ali Abdussalam Bin Hassan. In the evening, Walid Khamaj, one of the Zawiyya militia leaders, survived an assassination attempt on Omar al-Mukhtar Street in the city centre. Al-Far’s militias are claimed to be behind this. Muhammar al-Dhawi, commander of the 55th Wershefana Brigade, also survived an assassination attempt by gunfire in Zawiyya during a visit to offer condolences to the family of al-Bija. The 1st Support Force Zawiyya mobilized its troops and threatened to march to Tripoli to free their commander al-Far.
On 8 September, a number of citizens of Zawiyya protested against the increase of violence in their city.