People gather at the checkpoint targeted in the bomb attack at Msillata yesterday.
AFP
Tripoli
At least six civilians were killed and 14 wounded in a bomb attack on a Libyan security checkpoint yesterday near Khoms, east of the capital, a security official said.
The attack, for which there was no immediate claim of responsibility, targeted a checkpoint manned by forces of Libya’s unrecognised government at Msillata, near Khoms, 120km from Tripoli.
“The car bomb explosion left six dead and 14 wounded, all civilians,” Safwan Bayou, commander of a unit in charge of security on the coastal road linking eastern and western Libya, said.
An AFP photographer at the scene said the blast ripped open a crater 4m across and 3m deep, destroying some 20 civilian and military vehicles.
Bayou said a team of experts was being sent to investigate the bombing.
Libya has had two administrations since August 2014, when a militia alliance overran the capital and set up its own parliament in Tripoli while forcing an internationally recognised government to take refuge in Tobruk, in the east.
The oil-rich country has been riven by chaos and warfare since the fall of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The United Nations has been brokering talks to create a new unity government to end fighting between the army and the militias that seized Tripoli.
