Car bomb kills 11 soldiers in Libya’s Benghazi

Libyan Muslim worshippers gather on Martyrs' Square in the capital Tripoli to perform Eid al-Fitr prayers on July 6, 2016. No untoward incidents were reported in Tripoli, unlike in the city of Benghazi which was hit by a suicide bomb attack that killed 11 soldiers during Wednesday's Eid Al-Fitr celebrations. (AFP / MAHMUD TURKIA)

BENGHAZI, Libya: A car bomb killed 11 soldiers in Libya’s second city Benghazi as they held evening prayers on the first day of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, a military source said Thursday.
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 recognize 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 spokesman said.
“The crash was due to a technical fault,” Ahmad Al-Mismari, spokesman of the Haftar-led army command, told AFP.