Clashes in Eastern Libya Kill Nine Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters Libyan army troops during clashes with Ansar al-Shariah, a local hard-line Islamist group, on Monday in Benghazi. CAIRO - Clashes between hard-line Islamists and a local military unit broke out across Benghazi on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens in the latest flare-up in a struggle for control of the city. The fighting pitted Ansar al-Shariah, a local hard-line Islamist group whose fighters were seen in the attack on the United States mission in Benghazi last fall, against an army unit known locally as "special forces," which defected from Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's camp at the start of the uprising against him. The melee followed the deaths of at least 43 people in Tripoli 10 days ago when out-of-town militiamen opened fire on civilians protesting their presence. And both battles come as rival regional and ideological factions across the country are flexing their muscles in preparation for Libya's second attempt to elect a constitutional assembly that might lay the foundations for a new national government two years after the ouster of Colonel Qaddafi. The local authorities in Benghazi asked civilians to stay in their homes as the fighting continued into midday. Residents circulated pictures on the Internet that appeared to show Ansar al-Shariah's headquarters in flames. Each side blamed the other for starting the violence but all acknowledged that the conflict had been building for more than a year. The most extreme of Benghazi's several well-known Islamists militias, Ansar al-Shariah has rejected the transitional government as insufficiently theocratic and has maintained its own armed brigade outside government control. Its fighters retained control of a strategic checkpoint on the coastal road toward Tripoli, but also guarded a local hospital. And since some of its fighters were seen participating in the attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, the group has become a target of special resentment and suspicion by non-Islamists across Benghazi, Before they defected, soldiers from the "special forces" helped carry out Colonel Qaddafi's crackdowns on Libya's Islamists, and a rivalry between the two factions has grown since his ouster. As residents" resentment of Islamist militias has grown in the city, the "special forces" have sought to step forward and challenge the Islamists for control of the streets. In recent months, the two forces have appeared to fight each other through campaigns of assassinations and bombings. Benghazi residents have been caught in the cross-fire. The fighting in Tripoli that started on Nov. 15 was another flare-up of tensions among former rebel groups but without the same ideological divide. A cluster of militias from the coastal city of Misurata began shooting at civilian demonstrators demanding an end to militia dominance of Libya, killing dozens and wounding many more. In the aftermath, residents called for a three-day general strike to demand that Misuratans and other militias withdraw from the city, and many appear to have complied. In an appearance in London with Prime Minister Ali Zeidan of Libya, Secretary of State John Kerry called the situation "a moment of opportunity where there's a great deal of economic challenge, there's a great deal of security challenge." Mr. Kerry said that the Libyan prime minister had described "a transformation that he believes is beginning to take place and could take place because the people of Libya have spoken out and pushed back against the militias." Libya's transitional government currently expects to hold national elections in February to choose a 60-person panel that will draft a new constitution. The country held elections in the summer of 2012 that were initially expected to choose an assembly that would oversee the drafting of a charter. But under growing threats of violence from eastern Libya over the regional allocation of seats, the previous government changed the mandate of the new legislature on the eve of the vote, stripping it of its constitutional role and calling for another round of voting. Osama Alfitori contributed from Tripoli, Libya.