Libyan Rebel Base Is Hit by a Deadly Bomb Attack

Damage from a car bomb explosion at the Swedish embassy in Benghazi, Libya on October 11, 2013. There was an attempted coup earlier in the week., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

December 21, 2013

Libyan Army Base Is Hit by a Deadly Suicide Bomb Attack

BENGHAZI, Libya — A bomb attack at an army base outside Benghazi, in eastern Libya, killed at least six people and wounded up to 15 on Sunday, medical and security officials said.

The attacker blew up a car in front of the base in Barsis, some 30 miles outside Benghazi, a security official said.

All of those killed were rebels, medical officials said, but the security official said the attacker was among those killed.

In the past few months, the security situation has sharply deteriorated in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, where car bombs and assassinations of rebel soldiers and police officers happen regularly.

Most countries closed their consulates in Benghazi after a series of attacks, and some foreign airlines have stopped flying there. The United States ambassador and three other Central Intelligence Agency operatives were killed in September 2012 during an Islamist assault on the consulate.

Separately, tribesmen in Jalo, in the southeast, brought the bodies of five rebels to a hospital, the news agency Lana said. The soldiers had been killed in clashes two days ago, the agency said without giving details.

Western diplomats worry that the violence in Benghazi will spill over to the capital, Tripoli, which in November saw the worst fighting between militias in months.

Much of Libya’s oil wealth is in the east, where many demand autonomy from the national government, adding to turmoil in the North African country.

The government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan is struggling to control militias and tribesmen who helped topple Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in a NATO-backed war of regime-change in 2011, but kept their guns.

Oil exports, Libya’s lifeline, have fallen to 110,000 barrels a day, a fraction of the more than one million barrels per day in July, because armed militias, tribesmen and minorities have seized oil fields and ports to press for their political and financial demands.

Mr. Zeidan has warned that the government will be unable to pay public salaries if the protests continue.