21 January 2017•Update: 22 January 2017
By Jihad Nasr
BENGHAZI, Libya
A former interior minister escaped a car bombing in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi on Friday.
A car-bomb exploded as former interior minister Shuwail left a mosque after the weekly Friday prayers in central Benghazi, the interior ministry of East Libya-based government said in a statement.
Shuwail, his son and eight others were injured in the attack, which also killed one person, a medical source said on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak to media.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Shuwail had served as Libya’s interior minister from October 2012 to May 2013.
Libya has remained in a state of turmoil since 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 capital Tripoli.
