Nasser statue destroyed in Libya

BENGHAZI, Libya, February 11, 2012 (AFP)

A pro-Islamist group on Saturday destroyed a memorial honouring the leader of pan-Arab nationalism, Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi.

An AFP reporter said the attackers used hammers and other tools to bring down the statue, on a road also named after the former Egyptian president.
It was not immediately clear why the memorial was targeted.

The statue had been erected by the ousted regime of slain Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi, whose policies for decades had been influenced by Abdel Nasser’s pan-Arab nationalism.

Kadhafi was killed on October 20 in his home town of Sirte, ending a bloody conflict against his 42-year iron-fisted rule.

The revolt against Kadhafi first erupted in Benghazi on February 17 last year.