Nawasi and the Libyan militias

The Al-Nawasi Brigade is one of a handful of militias that now control Tripoli and most of the government entities there. Together with the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade, the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), and the Abu Slim unit of the Central Security Apparatus, they have taken over the main functions of the police and the military. These groups trace their origins back to the local groups that organised resistance to the Qadhafi regime during the 2011 revolution, but in reality they established themselves as protection rackets in the lawlessness that followed.