An elite Libyan unit has joined a renegade general to battle Islamists in the east as rising lawlessness in the nation's two largest cities edges it closer to civil war.
The government posted an open letter on its website suggesting that the General National Congress or parliament "take a recess" as a way out of the crisis.
Gunmen stormed the GNC in southern Tripoli on Sunday, two days after an anti-Islamist offensive launched by a rogue general in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Colonel Wanis Abu Khamada, respected commander of an elite army unit, announced on Monday that his troops would join retired general Khalifa Haftar's operation targeting Islamist militias in the North African nation's second city.
Abu Khamada said his unit would join the operation "launched by the Libyan National Army with all our men and weapons".
His forces have come under regular attack in Benghazi by presumed Islamist militias, and dozens of his men have been killed.
With the interim authorities failing to build a regular army and police, militias have ruled the roost since ousting long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. It was in Benghazi that the uprising erupted in 2011.
After Sunday's attack on parliament, a colonel claiming to speak on behalf of the army declared that the GNC had been suspended.
The government had no immediate comment but suggested the GNC "take a recess after the vote on the 2014 budget and until new parliamentary elections" within three months to avoid civil war.
Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani said two people were killed and 55 wounded in Sunday's clashes between rival militias in southern Tripoli but that the violence had "no real link" to events in Benghazi.
Witnesses said the Tripoli assailants belonged to the powerful Zintan brigades that have attacked the GNC in the past.
The Zintan brigades control areas in southern Tripoli around the airport.
