Libyan armed Islamists driven underground Ansar al-Sharia was among the most hardline of Islamist militias roaming eastern Libya, suspected of being involved in the September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi which left Christopher Stevens, the ambassador, and three other Americans dead. But while the group was stationed at its camps and bases in central Benghazi, at least authorities could keep an eye on its members - and even slowly coax them into embracing the country's new order. Now, after a rowdy anti-militia demonstration in Benghazi on September 21 drove its fighters out of their bases - along with their Kalashnikovs, truck-mounted guns and rocket-propelled grenades - Ansar al-Sharia has all but disappeared underground, beyond the vision of the security forces or even fellow militiamen. "I could sympathise with the people who wanted an end to armed militias," said Mohammed Mofti, a politician from eastern Libya. But now we have a worse mess because we have pushed them out. And it's a source of fear. Now you have the weapons somewhere you can't find them. And they have gone underground. Libya has been rattled by crime and outbreaks of ethnic, tribal and militia violence since the ousting of Muammer Gaddafi's regime and the breaking-up of his security forces last year. Armed fighters who fought against the former regime, their hangers-on and any group who managed to gather weapons from Colonel Gaddafi's vast abandoned arsenals filled the resulting security vacuum with militias of various ideological stripes and legal status. After the Benghazi protest, some of the militias agreed to come under the control of the government. But others, such as Ansar al-Sharia, disbanded. The disappearance of its 250-300 men, some veterans of the front lines of the 2011 Libyan civil war as well as insurgencies in Iraq or Afghanistan, has alarmed even members of other Islamist militias, who portray Ansar al-Sharia as an obscure group that pursued an extreme agenda. One self-described Ansar al-Sharia associate, identified as a hardcore member by his friends, said he did not know whether his group was behind the attack on the consulate but justified it as a strike against western hegemony. Mr Stevens, the ambassador "is a symbol," he said. He is representing US policy, which is to destroy the Middle Eastern people. The Ansar al-Sharia associate predicted that there would be an armed uprising against any Libyan government which veered too closely to the west and demanded that any future administration impose a strict version of Islamic law on Libyans. He praised Afghanistan's Taliban government of the 1990s as the only credible Islamic state. "You cannot submit to the rule of God and submit to the rule of the majority at the same time," he said. Vacating its bases in eastern Libya was a wise tactical move, said the 26-year-old, who studied briefly in the US. Anonymous US officials have told western media this week that the Obama administration was considering launching unilateral attacks on suspected militant sites in Libya in response to the attack the US consulate. "It's not a good thing to be on bases now," he said. We are occupied. This is the same problem that you see in Iraq or Afghanistan where the US is trying to impose its will. Even other Islamists distanced themselves from his views. "He represents one-tenth of one per cent of the views of residents in eastern Libya," Ahmed Orfi, a relative of the Ansar al Sharia member, said after the meeting. There are maybe only 200 people who think like him in all the east of Libya. Clergy and other militias have tried to moderate the group's views or at least redirect its energies toward pursuits that did not endanger public welfare. They were asked restore order at a Benghazi hospital plagued with vandalism, harassment of medical staff and theft. One member of another militia said Ansar al-Sharia busied itself cracking down on petty street crime, such as the production and distribution of Libyan moonshine, called bokha. "It was against the state, so it refused to be incorporated under the government," said Ismail Sallabi, leader of the Rafallah Sahati militia, another armed group which serves under the ministry of defence. But it was starting to get close to the people. Some people were starting to like Ansar al-Sharia. Now, where is Ansar al Sharia? It's yet another problem. Much of the country's official security apparatus disintegrated after Gaddafi's regime collapsed and efforts to resurrect it have stalled, largely because former revolutionary fighters and militiamen do not trust former policemen and soldiers. Some fear that Ansar al-Sharia's fate and its demonisation by a broadcast media dominated by liberal former exiles could actually increase its influence. At a building housing the supreme security council, SSC, an elite interior ministry unit made up of former militiamen, the officers openly praised Ansar al-Sharia, which in Arabic means "partisans of Islamic law." "We are all Ansar al-Sharia," said one. When asked whether he was keeping track of former Ansar al-Sharia members, the harried commander of the SSC in Benghazi, among the top security officials in eastern Libya, said his unit had few resources to do anything more than respond to an avalanche of security incidents. "I'm a communications engineer and was propelled to this position during the revolution," said Fawzi Waniss Gaddafi. We're not professional law enforcement. We're civilians. "The problem is you have militias whether you like them or not," said Mr Mofti, the politician. Right now the name of the game is accommodation. Because there is no police or army, accommodation is the only answer.