Truck bomb attack on Libyan police center
January 7, 2016
An explosives-laden truck stormed through the gates of the police training facility on Thursday, then blew up causing what initial reports suggest were dozens of casualties.
The blast occurred in the coastal city of Zliten, located around 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.
Libya has been wracked by fighting between various armed groups since the ouster of longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
The oil-rich North African country is split between an internationally recognized government based in Tobruk in the far east of the country and another rival government composed of an Islamist alliance that took control of the capital Tripoli in August. Zliten is controlled by the rival government in Tripoli.
A UN-brokered power sharing agreement agreed to by the two governments in December has failed to take hold amid bitter infighting in the two parliaments.
The UN's representative to Libya, Martin Kobler, said on Twitter the rising number of terror attacks should push to rival governments to unite.
The chaos has opened space for the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) to make inroads in Libya, where its strongholds center around the Mediterranean coastal towns of Sirte and al-Nofaliyeh.
IS carried out attacks earlier this week on al-Sidra and Ras Lanouf, two major oil terminals located east of Sirte. The attacks set off a blaze in the oil storage tankers that as of Thursday authorities were still trying to put out.
cw/se (AFP, dpa, Reuters)