Libyan MP hurt during gunfight outside parliament

A Libyan lawmaker was wounded on Tuesday as he attempted to break up a fight outside parliament after shots were fired, a witness said. 

"An argument escalated between members of the presidential guard... the Tobruk lawmaker Saleh Hashem was lightly injured as he intervened to separate them," the witness told AFP.

"A guard was also shot and wounded. They have both been admitted to hospital and are doing well," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It is not immediately clear what sparked the brawl outside parliament, which is located in the eastern city of Tobruk.

A 2015 UN-brokered deal that set up the Government of National Accord was meant to calm years of chaos that followed the ouster and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

But the Tripoli-based unity government struggled to win the support of the elected parliament in Tobruk and its legitimacy was questioned by its rivals from the very start.

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Sitting lawmakers were elected in 2014 and were due to vote at the end of July on a plans to organise a referendum on a Libyan constitution.

Parliamentary sessions have repeatedly been adjourned due to lawmakers arguing over the legal text and no further sessions are scheduled until the end of August.

Aguila Saleh Issa, the parliament speaker, was one of four Libyan leaders to commit in May to organising elections on 10 December in an agreement in Paris that sought to unite rival factions.

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