Islamic State terrorist group claimed the latest Libya car bomb that killed two people

Two members of Libya’s security forces were killed and five others wounded Sunday evening in a car bomb blast at a checkpoint in the country’s south, a police source said.

“A car bomb exploded as it was crossing a roadblock set up by the security forces” in the city of Sebha, a police official in the city said.

Sebha is located around 750 kilometres south of the capital Tripoli.

Local media showed images of badly damaged security force vehicles surrounded by debris.

ISIS claimed responsibility through the militant group’s Nasheer news agency, posted on Telegram late on Sunday.

The group said one of its fighters, called Muhammed El Muhajer, stormed a checkpoint with an explosives-laden car.

Interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah wrote on Twitter that it had been a “cowardly terrorist act”, offering condolences to the families of the two killed.

“Our war against terrorism continues,” Mr Dbeibah added.

Sebha, capital of the southern province of Fezzan, is controlled by forces loyal to eastern-based Libyan National Army head, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and has been the scene of several extremist attacks in recent years.

Meanwhile, the Libyan Red Crescent said on Sunday that unidentified assailants abducted one of its local officials several days ago in the eastern city of Ajdabiya.

Mansour Ati Al Maghrabi, head of the Red Crescent’s Ajdabiya branch, was taken Thursday, branch secretary-general Mari Al Dersi said.

“We lost all contact with the director on Thursday when unknown [assailants] forced him from the LRC headquarters in Ajdabiya,” Mari Al Dersi told AFP by telephone.

Authorities have opened an investigation, a security source in Ajdabiya told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“A search is under way to attempt to localise him and know the details” of his abduction, the source said.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) expressed concern for Mr Maghrabi’s safety.

Mr Maghrabi “was abducted on 3 June when his car was intercepted by unknown armed men and his whereabouts remain unknown”, it said Saturday on Twitter.

“The Mission calls for his unconditional release,” it added, urging a “transparent investigation into this enforced disappearance”.

Ajdabiya is also controlled by Field Marshal Haftar’s forces.

Libya is seeking to extricate itself from a decade of chaos and conflict that followed the toppling of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in a 2011 uprising that led to Nato intervention.

A formal truce signed last October between rival camps in the country’s east and west led to the creation of an interim government tasked with preparing the country for December polls.

However, the security situation remains precarious despite the ceasefire and progress on the political front.

Source: The National News