Mali's army says 47 were killed in ongoing clashes this week with a new Tuareg rebel group, whose members include former pro-Qaddafi fighters. "Our armed forces have bravely beaten back the attacks of the former Libyan fighters and the MNLA rebels," the armed forces said in a statement Jan. 19, using the acronym of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. But MNLA spokesman Moussa Ag Acharatoumane denied the government's account, telling the Reuters that his fighters had killed around 30 to 40 soldiers. Both rebel and government forces claim to be in control of Aguelhoc. The MNLA spokesman said fighting was suspended in Tessalit to allow for the withdrawal of Algerian soldiers who had been helping Mali. Sources told Al Jazeera that the army is conducting house raids and arrests in the northern towns of Gao and Kidal, targetting Tuareg tribal sheikhs, as well as Tuareg military and political figures.

One solider was killed in northern Mali Jan. 17 in a clash with Tuareg fighters of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA)—who authorities said were backed up by former pro-Qaddafi Libyan soldiers. The army said it beat back the Tuaregs and Libyans with a helicopter assault, destroying six vehicles in the skirmish at Menaka in the Gao region. (Reuters, Jan. 17) National Transitional Council forces in Tripoli are meanwhile preparing an offensive against Qaddafi-loyalist strongholds in Libya's south. Rival militias clashed near the town of Gharyan left four dead and 50 wounded before a prisoner swap was brokered to end the fighting. The clash began when a man was stabbed and stripped naked at a vegetable market. The fighting pitted the Martyrs Brigade of Gharyan against the Assaba militia, said to be Qaddafi loyalists. (AFP, BBC World Service, Jan. 17)

Hundreds of Libyan soldiers protested Jan. 5 in the eastern city of Benghazi, demanding payment of overdue wages and complaining that militia groups have taken over their bases and resist joining a new national army. "The revolutionaries don't want to join an organized military, they want to keep their current situation," Mabrouk Abdullah al-Oraibi, who formerly worked in the military's accounting department, told Reuters. While the Reuters account emphasized that the army had been "marginalized" by Moammar Qaddafi (presumably in favor of mercenaries in his direct pay), Algeria ISP reports that the protesting soldiers chanted "Yes, yes, yes, Moammar is alive!"

The Germany-based Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) warns of a further destabilization of post-Qaddafi Libya. "Libya is threatened by a Berber revolt," said the STP's Africa expert, Ulrich Delius. "The country's new leadership is not prepared to honor the help of the Berber militias during the overthrow the Qaddafi regime by recognizing the basic rights of the non-Arab minority. Libya is about to fall back into times as bad as during the Qaddafi regime, if there is no end to the general arabization and racism against non-Arabs." This month has seen scattered skirmishes between Berber and Arab militias and the nascent national army.

The website Algeria ISP reports (citing unnamed "Arab" sources) Dec. 11 that the US and France have jointly established a secret drone base in the Libyan desert, near the area of Katroune. Craft from the secret base are allegedly flying missions to Niger, Mali and Mauritania, with the ostensible objective of seeking out Saharan arms trafficking networks of al-Qeada in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Algeria has reportedly refused to allow the drones to fly through its territory.

Some 2,000 protesters filled Tripoli's Martyrs' Square Dec. 7 to demand withdrawal of the militia forces that have been in the capital since the fall of Moammar Qaddafi pull out of the city. Jurists and police were among the leaders of the march, accusing the militiamen of terrorizing residents with impunity. Placards read "No to weapons; Yes to justice!" The rally was organized by the city council and backed by the interim government. The militias, mostly from the cities of Misrata and Zintan, continue to occupying buildings that formerly housed Qaddafi cronies to use as their headquarters. The interim government is pressuring militiamen to go home and leave security functions to the police and the new army it plans to create. Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib and the city council have given militias until Dec. 20 to leave. (Reuters, Reuters, AFP, Dec. 7)

A Tunisian military court on Nov. 30 convicted former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in absentia on torture charges. Ben Ali and eight others were found guilty of the torture of 17 military generals in connection with a 1991 coup attempt. Ben Ali was sentenced to five years in prison. This week's sentence adds to a 35-year prison sentence handed down in June after his conviction in absentia on charges of theft and illegal possession of money, jewelry, drugs and weapons. Ben Ali, who remains in exile in Saudi Arabia, has denied the charges against him. His most recent conviction resulted from the first trial held against a former Tunisian government official since the new democratically-elected government took power earlier this year.

A team of investigators from the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrived in Libya on Nov. 30 to begin an inquiry into new allegations of sex crimes committed by loyalists of former leader Moammar Qaddafi. Jane O'Toole is leading the ICC investigation into allegations that Qaddafi ordered mass rapes and provided troops with sexual stimulants for the purpose of enforcing an official rape policy. According to chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC has evidence that rape was used to punish women, instill fear and subdue the population. Ocampo stated his investigation is nearly finished, and the results of this investigation may be used to file additional charges against Libya's chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, among others. It has been alleged that al-Senussi was involved in the ordering and organizing of mass rapes.