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Africa North
At least 8 killed, 8 wounded in suicide car bomb in eastern Libya: Security Officer
2018-03-30
[AlAhram] At least eight people, including civilians, were killed late Thursday in a suicide boom-mobileing of a security barricade in the east of Libya, the second such attack in less than a month, local security and hospital sources said.

A suicide kaboomer went kaboom! his vehicle at a barricade manned by forces loyal to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
near the city of Ajdabiya some 840 kilometres (520 miles) from Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, general Fawzi al-Mansouri, a top officer in the local security forces, told AFP.

Eight other people were maimed.

"Five people died on arriving at the hospital shortly after the attack," a source at the city’s public hospital told AFP.

The three other victims died later of their injuries, the source who requested anonymity said.

"There were civilians among the dead and injured," Mansouri said, adding that no one has yet grabbed credit.

A suicide attack which injured three people on March 9 south of Ajdabiya was claimed by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group.

Despite the loss of its Sirte bastion in northern Libya in December 2016, IS remains active in the centre and south of the country.

The oil-rich North African country has been wracked by chaos since a 2011 uprising that toppled and killed long-time dictator Moamer Qadaffy.

Two authorities ‐ the Tripoli-based unity government and a rival administration in the east ‐ are vying for control of Libya.

Haftar, who opposes a UN-backed unity government based in Tripoli, announced the "liberation" of the eastern city of Benghazi last July after a three-year campaign.
Posted by:trailing wife

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