Car bomb explodes in  Libya’s Benghazi

world4BENGHAZI. — A car bomb exploded in central Benghazi yesterday, witnesses and a security official told AFP, but there was no immediate report of casualties.A white pickup truck “exploded and burst into flames”, the security services official said, without being able to give any more details.

Witnesses reported that the explosion was not a large blast, and pictures posted on Internet social networks show a minimal amount of damage around the vehicle.

This comes in the wake of two powerful explosions that went off near the courthouse in Libya’s second city of Benghazi late on Sunday, wounding 13 people, security and medical sources said.

The blasts came a day after more than 1 000 inmates escaped during a prison riot in the eastern city, birthplace of the 2011 armed uprising that ousted and killed late leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Mohamed Hijazi, spokesman for the security services in Benghazi, said two suitcase bombs had caused the blasts.
They went off as people gathered to break the Ramadan fast.

Initial reports from security officials spoke of 10 people injured, but a medical source at al-Haouari hospital later updated that to 13.
Local residents told AFP that nearby buildings were badly damaged in the blast.

Amid a spate of incidents in the restive city, nearly 1 300 inmates escaped during Saturday’s riot in Benghazi’s Al-Kuifiya prison, a security official said.

On Friday night, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Benghazi to condemn the assassination in the city earlier the same day of Abdessalem al-Mesmari, an anti-Islamist lawyer who campaigned for a civil state. — AFP.

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