Car bomb kills 22 injures 20 in Libya’s Benghazi

At least twenty-two people have been killed and twenty more injured in a car bombing attack that targeted security forces in Libya’s Benghazi.

The blast targeted a gathering of a unit of General Khalifa Haftar’s forces in a residential area in the Guwarsha district, medical and military officials said on Tuesday.

Benghazi has witnessed fierce battles in the past two years between pro-government troops led by Haftar and armed militias, including Takfiri groups such as Daesh and the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia.

Libya has been struggling to contain Takfiri terrorists, who have been expanding their presence in the country following the overthrow and death of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Taking advantage of the political chaos in the country, Daesh took control of Sirte in June 2015, nearly four months after it declared presence in the city, making it the first city to be ruled by the group outside of Iraq and Syria.

Libya has had two rival governments since 2014, when politician Khalifa Ghweil and his self-proclaimed government seized control of the capital, Tripoli, with the support of militia groups, forcing the internationally-recognized government to move to the country’s remote eastern city of Tobruk.

However, they achieved a consensus on forming a unity government, the GNA, last December after months of UN-brokered talks in Tunisia and Morocco, in a bid to restore order in the oil-rich nation.