Libya's president has ordered all of the country's militias to come under government authority or disband.
This is a move aimed at harnessing popular anger against the powerful armed groups following the attack that killed the US ambassador.
The assault on the US mission in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, has sparked an angry backlash among many Libyans.
There are a myriad of armed factions that continue to run rampant across the nation nearly a year after the end of the civil war.
On Friday, Benghazi residents staged a mass demonstration against the militias.
They stormed the compounds of several armed groups in the city in an unprecedented protest to demand the militias dissolve.
Late yesterday, President Mohammed el-Megaref told reporters that the militias, which the weak central government has relied upon for providing security in neighbourhoods and at state facilities since Gaddafi's ouster, must fall under the authority of the national government or be disbanded.
He said a joint operations room in Benghazi will coordinate between the various authorised armed brigades and the army.
Armed groups "which are not under the control of the state," will be disbanded, and the military and police will take control over those militias' barracks, he said.
In a statement published by the official LANA news agency, the military asked all armed groups using the army's camps and outposts and barracks in Tripoli and other cities to hand them over.
It warned that it will resort to force if the groups refuse.
