Suicide bombing kills 15 in Libya’s Benghazi

By Moataz al-Majbari

TRIPOLI

At least 15 people were killed in a suicide car bombing in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday.

A bomber blew up his vehicle at a military checkpoint in western Benghazi late Tuesday, Colonel Ahmed al-Mesmari, a spokesman for army troops loyal to the Tobruk-based parliament, told Anadolu Agency.

He said ten troops were killed and 16 others injured in the bombing.

Riad al-Shubibi, a spokesman for the Libyan Special Forces, however, said 15 people were killed in the attack.

“Fifteen members of the Special Forces were injured and four more soldiers were still unaccounted for,” he said.

Tuesday’s bombing was claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries.

Last week, two suicide bombings killed at least three soldiers and injured nine others in Benghazi, which has been plagued by violence since Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar launched a military campaign against the Shura Council two years ago.

Libya has been locked in a state of turmoil since 2011, when a bloody uprising ended with the ouster and death of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Since then, the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, one in Tobruk and another in Tripoli, each of which boasts its own military capacity and legislative assembly.