Libya's Benghazi Keeps Its Air of Rebelliousness In front of Benghazi's stock market, pedestrians pick their way around lakes of sewage in the street, carefully stepping on bricks set in the fetid water. The grandest hotel in Libya's second largest city is a gloomy, state-owned bulk, with broken windows and dim corridors. Benghazans, who see their city as a co-capital and historic home of Libya's king, are bitter over decades of neglect and humiliation under Moammar Gadhafi. And they rumble with discontent that the transitional leadership in Tripoli still doesn't treat them as equals. Last week's deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate was just one sign of how the city of 1 million is a tough customer. Perched on the Mediterranean Sea on the eastern side of Libya's Gulf of Sidra, Benghazi was the first to revolt against Gadhafi last year, its young protesters hurling themselves against his troops until the regime's hold was broken. It then became the rebel capital and the heartland for the militias on the eastern front of the months-long civil war. The sense of rebelliousness continues. Since Gadhafi's fall, several top leaders from Tripoli have gotten rough welcomes here. Then-interim president Mustafa Abdul-Jalil was met earlier this year by angry protesters, some armed, who stormed his office and forced him to flee. Protesters with knives went after his prime minister. Libyans fishing at the Seaport shore cornice, in Benghazi, Libya, Monday, Sept. In front of Benghazi's stock market, there are lakes of sewage in the street, and the grandest hotel here is a gloomy hulk with broken windows and dim corridors. The city that was the site of a deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate was the heart of Libya's revolution, and now its residents are discontent with the new leadership in Tripoli. (AP photo/Mohammad Hannon) Close Al-Shahat al-Awami, the head of the elected city council, resigned in July, just one month after he assumed his post, after receiving threats that he would be shot dead and his house burned to ashes because of failures to clean up garbage and delays in salaries. This is the paradox. Today they vote for you and tomorrow they spit in your face," said Faraj Nejim, a native son and political commentator who is now a representative for the city in the national assembly. "If this city doesn't rest, the whole nation won't see any serenity," he said. It is the one exporting everything good and evil. Leaders and suicide bombers. When the central government fails to realize that as a fact and deals with Benghazi as a remote city, troubles start. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, only fueled the resentment of Tripoli. Residents held rallies memorializing the slain ambassador. Some blamed the government for failing to improve security forces or rein in the multiple militias that operate in Benghazi - some of whom are suspected in the attack. Many noted that the new interior minister, in charge of security forces, has not come to Benghazi and are suspicious of him because he is originally from a western-based militia. The attack also fueled residents' worries over the growing powers of armed Islamist groups. They called for protests on Friday calling it "the Friday of rescuing Benghazi" from the grip of militias. Though some of the militias and Islamic extremists are native sons, the city's deep refusal to be dominated applies to them too. Earlier this month, extremists tried to demolish a beloved Muslim shrine south of Benghazi that they considered a heresy. Tribesmen shot three of them dead and shaved the beards off the others they captured.