Car bomb blast leaves 11 troops dead in Libya’s Benghazi

A car bomb killed 11 soldiers in Libya’s Benghazi city as they held evening prayers on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, a military source said Thursday.

A car bomb killed 11 soldiers in Libya’s Benghazi city as they held evening prayers on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, a military source said Thursday.

A damaged army vehicle is seen after a suicide bombing at an army camp in Benghazi. (Reuters File Photo)

Benghazi has been hit by repeated bombings since troops under the command of controversial General Khalifa Haftar drove Islamist fighters out of most of the city earlier this year.

Haftar refuses to recognise a joint military command set by the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli, saying he still takes orders from a rival administration based in the far eastern city of Tobruk.

Wednesday’s blast follows a car bomb targeting a security chief that killed two people on Sunday and a June 24 bombing that killed four civilians.

Meanwhile, a MiG-23 fighter jet of Haftar’s air force crashed in the west of Benghazi on Wednesday, killing its pilot, a spokesperson said.

“The crash was due to a technical fault,” Ahmad al-Mismari, spokesman of the Haftar-led army command, told AFP.