I found I had to carefully read this Al Jazeera report: Libyans storm militia bases in Benghazi alongside the BBC and New York Times' pieces to get a decent picture of what actually happened. Obviously there's got to be some chaos going on if the reporting is so confusing....

Here's what I got out of doing that....

The government and people decided together somehow (and we don't know who led, who organized) to have a raid of Ansar following a large peaceful demonstration. The goal basically expressing that the majority wishes the militias disarmed so they can have rule of law: part of a co-ordinated sweep of militia headquarters buildings by police, government troops and activists following a mass public demonstration against armed groups earlier in the day (from Al Jazeera.) The Times' used a similar description.

And that they don't like Ansar especially in that regard because

"They did not give allegiance to the army. So the people broke in and they fled."

"This place is like the Bastille. This is where Gaddafi controlled Libya from, and then Ansar al-Sharia took it over (from Al Jazeera)

and this

"I don't want to see armed men wearing Afghani-style clothes stopping me in the street to give me orders, I only want to see people in uniform," said university student Omar Mohammed, who took part in the takeover of the Ansar al-Sharia compound. (from BBC.)

In all the articles there are suggestions like this that

Officials in Tripoli have been appealing for calm, she says.

Senior Libyan officials say that while they welcomed the protests, people should differentiate between the rogue militias and honest rebel brigades that helped to secure the town in last year's uprising against Col Muammar Gaddafi. (from BBC)

But don't say who those "senior officials" are and whether they were involved in organizing this, for want of a better word, escapade, or were actually against what was done.

In any case, all of those sentiment seems relatively good, seem on the right track.

BUT it also hit me that those who were involved in organizing this episode are still thinking Gaddafi-style "democracy" and rule of law: get a bunch of citizens out in the streets to support and accompany your armed initiatives! Team spirit style "rule of law"! Minority views, who cares? What do minorities have to do with rule of law?

And initially with the Ansar part, it worked out okay. And one could give them a break on this front because they don't have a decent government and police force set up and are still in a sort of revolutionary state of order. Not that much real violence, people waving swords and a meat cleaver (from Al Jazeera) and ending up in the burning of a car, a few other fires, and possibly several wounded from gunfire. Not worse than a lot of post-sports-victory celebration riots in a lot of other countries.

BUT THEN, there was another incident, a standoff outside the headquarters of the Sahaty Brigade in the city where, three people were killed and at least 20 injured according to witnesses and officials (from BBC.)

Al Jazeera says of it

A standoff around the base of Rafallah Sehati, an official brigade of the ministry of defence, left 10 people wounded.

It was not immediately clear who had started the shooting.

Ismail Salabi, leader of the brigade credited with securing the nation for parliamentary elections, told Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid that his vehicle was shot at four kilometres from the base.

Salabi, speaking to our correspondent, described the attack as an "assassination attempt".

The chief of staff and defence minister both alluded to "Gaddafi loyalists" as being responsible for the raid.

The wounded, however, refute  such allegations, saying instead that the government and its brigades responded in a violent manner reminiscent of the days of Gaddafi.

The Times article adds:

At the seized headquarters of another militia, protesters burned and pillaged a large number of weapons, and hundreds of looters could be seen walking away with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

which is ironically just the opposite result of the professed goal of this whole escapade!

The Times' article also notes

In a further sign that tensions had been stoked, some militia members accused Qaddafi loyalists of instigating the backlash. Mohamed Bazina, a spokesman for the Rafallah al-Sehati brigade, one of the militias whose headquarters were seized, said it had video evidence to prove it.

“This is a military coup against the true revolutionaries in the city of Benghazi,” he said. “Benghazi will not calm down.”

After this exercise, I think I'll go with the conclusion of the Times' reporters:

It was unclear whether the backlash against Ansar al-Sharia and the other militias on Friday represented an opportunity for the government to consolidate its power in the post-Qaddafi era or would lead to new violent confrontations.

but I guess I'd be a bit more harsh than them, from what I know so far, I'd say the day was a big fail. This is not "rule of law," starting with the idea of Ansar being tried in the streets and ending up with weapons transfers from citizen to citizen via violence.

So far I am not confident that the citizens of Libya don't need re-education classes to deprogram them from what they learned memorizing Gaddafi's Green Book in grammar school.

Suggests things are more complex than above reports make clear:

Libyan Islamist militia swept out of bases
By Peter Graff and Ghaith Shennib, Reuters

BENGHAZI, Libya | Sat Sep 22, 2012 8:36pm EDT

The two main Islamist militias in Derna, a city in eastern Libya known as an Islamist stronghold, withdrew from their five bases on Saturday and announced they were disbanding, residents said, a day after a militia was driven out of Benghazi.

The Abu Slim and Ansar al-Sharia militias' announcements were apparently motivated by events in Benghazi, where Ansar al-Sharia, a group linked with last week's deadly attack on the U.S. consulate, withdrew from all its bases in the city late on Friday amid mass demonstrations in support of the government.

Those demonstrations in Libya's second city, also in the east, erupted into violence when the crowd turned against another group that had sworn support for the government.

"The militia in Derna saw what happened last night and they decided: we will not kill our brothers. So they disbanded," Siraj Shennib, a 29-year-old linguistics professor who had been part of protests against the militia, said by telephone. "They said they no longer exist as militias in Derna. They will go home and leave security to the interior ministry and army."

Shennib said anti-militia protesters had been maintaining a vigil against the groups in Derna for 10 days, and the protests became much larger after a car-jacking three days ago. Residents blame the militia for creating a climate of insecurity [....]

But a doctor in a hospital where Ansar al-Sharia had been providing security for the past six weeks said the group had prevented anarchy.

"I don't know about their religion or ideology, but they solved problems," said Abdulmonin Salim. "I don't care if they come from another planet. I want a secure hospital." [....]