Deaths in car bombings in east Libya city
At least 45 people were killed and several others wounded in a triple bombing in an eastern Libyan town near the city of Derna, medical and security sources said.
Reuters reported on Friday that armed groups affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have claimed responsiblity for the simultaneous attacks in al-Qubbah.
The attacks targeted the city’s police headquarters, as well as the home of the speaker of Libya’s internationally recognised parliament and a petrol station, the sources said.
Medics said parliament speaker Aguila Salah Issa was not at home at the time of the bombings. Salah also blamed groups loyal to ISIL for the attacks.
Earlier, ISIL-affiliated groups vowed to carry out revenge attacks following the Egyptian air strikes.
Al-Qubbah is controlled by the paramilitary force of former General Khalifa Haftar, who is now backed by Libya’s beleaguered internationally recognised government.
It lies just 30 kilometres west of Derna, where Egypt launched air strikes against what it said were Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets on Monday in retaliation for a gruesome video showing the beheading of 21 Christians.
They said the majority of the casualties were at the petrol station where a long queue of motorists had been waiting to fill up.
Libya’s recognised parliament has been based in the town of Tobruk, farther east along the coast close to the Egyptian border, since an Islamist-backed militia alliance seized the capital last August and installed a rival parliament and government.
Source: Al Jazeera