Libyan troops were deployed to the capital city of Tripoli Monday after militia loyal to Gen. Khalifa Hifter, a rebel who took part in the overthrowing of Moammar Gadhafi, seized control of the parliament building and suspended the legislature.
The anti-Islamist militia attacked the building Sunday with anti-aircraft guns, mortars and rockets, killing two people and wounding 50.
The general reportedly sought to arrest several Islamist lawmakers.
"This parliament is what supports these extremist Islamist entities," Mohammed al-Hegazi, a Hifter spokesman, told Libyan television station al-Ahrar. "The aim was to arrest these Islamist bodies who wear the cloak of politics."
The group also took control of several areas in southern Tripoli, near the airport.
"We announce to the world that the country can't be a breeding ground or an incubator for terrorism," another Hifter spokesman, Mokhtar Farnana, said on Libyan television.
Libya's interim Islamist government has condemned the attack.
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