Libya's General National Congress, under pressure from militiamen, on Sunday voted through a controversial law to exclude former regime officials from government posts, a move that could see the premier removed from office.

Gunmen who had surrounded the foreign and justice ministries to press for officials from the strongman Moammar Gadhafi's regime who hold top government jobs to be sacked welcomed the vote and lifted their siege.

Clashes erupted in the Libyan capital on Friday between crowds demonstrating against militias in the city and supporters of a law to exclude Gadhafi-era officials from top government jobs, an AFP journalist said.

Several hundred people gathered in Tripoli's central Algeria Square to protest against militias that have been laying siege to the justice and foreign ministries to call for the sacking of officials from the ousted regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

Seif al-Islam, the detained son of Libya's late dictator Moammar Gadhafi, appeared in court Thursday charged with illegally trying to communicate with the outside world last June, an Agence France Presse journalist reported.

The man once assumed to be his father's heir appeared in good health, wearing blue clothes, at the hearing in the western town of Zintan.

A bomb destroyed a police station in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi early on Thursday but caused no casualties, a security source told Agence France Presse, in a second attack targeting the building.

"An explosive device was thrown at Al-Baraka police station in Benghazi, destroying what remained of the building after the bomb attack that targeted it last weekend," the source said.

U.S. authorities on Wednesday released pictures of three men it said were present during the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in eastern Libya, saying it wanted to question them.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's website did not say whether the three men -- all of whom appear to be carrying guns in the pictures -- are suspects in the attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Gunmen pressed their siege of two Libyan ministries on Wednesday, leaving the authorities in a dilemma of whether to risk a bloody confrontation or reinforce the image of a helpless state by negotiating patiently.

They have encircled the foreign ministry since Sunday and the justice ministry since Tuesday, demanding the sacking of former officials from the ousted regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

Gunmen demanding the sacking of former officials of the ousted Gadhafi regime surrounded the justice ministry on Tuesday, stepping up an action started at the Foreign Ministry, an official said.

"Several armed men in vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft guns surrounded the Ministry of Justice," spokesman Walid Ben Rabha told AFP.

Gunmen on Sunday surrounded Libya's foreign ministry demanding it be "cleansed of agents" of ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi, Agence France Press reported, as Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said the interior ministry was also attacked.

Zeidan also said that gunmen attempted to storm the headquarters of Libyan state television.

A car bomb hit France's embassy in Libya on Tuesday, wounding two French guards and causing extensive damage in the first attack on a foreign mission since militants stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in September.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel Aziz branded the bombing a "terrorist act", and French President Francois Hollande said Tripoli must act quickly to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Egypt will try a cousin and top aide of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on charges of attempted murder, although Libyan authorities are pressing for his extradition, Egyptian state media reported on Sunday.

Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, arrested in Cairo in March after a gunfight with police in his apartment, has been detained in Egypt since, despite Libyan demands for his extradition so he could be put on trial on forgery charges.