Deadly Car Bomb Detonates Near Benghazi Hospital

There have been reports of a car bomb that detonated in a car park just outside a major hospital in Benghazi, north Libya, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens, according to defense ministry officials.

According to AFP news agency, the car bomb laid waste to Al-Jala hospital’s car park on Monday afternoon, with at least 30 people wounded in the attack.

An official of the ministry also added that two children were amongst the dead, explaining that the explosives were loaded in a grey Toyota car.

Benghazi has been the centre of several attacks ever since the uprising that saw the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi began.

Demonstrators took to the streets, flooding the scene of the bombing with anger clearly seen on their faces. Many blamed militants for the incident, calling for only police and military presence in the country. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The explosion took out dozens of vehicles and did damage to nearby buildings, putting residents in a state of pandemonium.

The attack came only a day after the militants ended their two-week siege on foreign and justice ministries, and days after the US and the UK withdrew some of their staff from the embassies over concerns of their safety in the presence of rising tensions between militants and government forces.

Libyan Minister of Defense Quits Position

The Libyan Minister of Defense, Mohammed Mahmoud al-Bargati, has resigned from his position on Tuesday, protesting the siege on the ministries of justice and foreign affairs by gunmen.

Despite the fact that the parliament passed down a law that purges Gaddafi-era officials from their posts (the militiamen had demanded the parliament introduce a law banning officials of the Gaddafi-era from holding office), the gunmen have continued to put ministries under siege on Tuesday.

In his own words to Reuters, the minister said, “I will never be able to accept that politics can be practiced by the power of weapons … This is an assault against the democracy I have sworn to protect.”

Before Bargati was appointed defence minister in November last year, he was retired on a government pension in 1994 after serving as a commander of the Benghazi air force.

After the parliament voted to ban anyone who held a senior position during Muammar Gaddafi’s four-decade-rule from government on Sunday, most of the gunmen have dispersed from the ministries.

But, some groups of heavily armed fighters stayed behind. According to some of them who spoke to the reporters, they were waiting to be replaced by official security forces.

The new law could see the ousting of the prime minister, 40 of over 200 deputies, and other top officials in the government, irrespective of their roles in the removal of the late dictator.

Bargati will be the first cabinet minister to resign since the new law was passed. There are indications that he resigned before his expected dismissal, as the law would apply to him as soon as it takes effect.

Gunmen Surround Libyan Foreign Ministry

 

Witnesses in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, reported that at least 20 trucks loaded with anti-aircraft guns blocked the roads on Sunday, with about 200 gunmen armed with AK-47s and sniper rifles surrounding Libyan foreign ministry in order to push demands that former workers of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi be banned from senior positions in the new administration.

Since a campaign was launched to break the militias from their strongholds in the capital, there has been rising tension between the government and the groups in recent weeks.

The commander of the group told Reuters news agency, ‘the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will remain closed until the political isolation law (against ex-Gaddafi officials) is implemented.’

He also added that the foreign ministry had been targeted because some officials employed there had worked for Gaddafi.

Sunday’s protest was simply to demand a law be passed banning officials who had worked for Gaddafi from occupying senior positions in the government.

At the moment, the General National Congress, which is Libya’s highest political authority, is studying the proposals; this implies that the legislation is under discussion, but has yet to be approved.

Car Bomb Explodes Outside French Embassy in Libya Leaving Three Wounded

A car bomb exploded outside the French Embassy in Libya on Tuesday. According to reports, the bomb took off the front wall of the embassy along with its reception area, wounding two guards and a Libyan teenager.

  

It set fire at the embassy’s entrance which engulfed some offices, and wounded a Libyan girl who was having breakfast in a nearby house, according to a post by Deputy Prime Minister Awad al-Barassi on his Facebook page.

So far, no individual or group has taken responsibility for the attack after the blast occurred early in the morning. But, al-Qaeda’s AQIM threatened to retaliate for the French intervention in Mali just recently.

In the past, there have been several attacks on diplomatic missions in Benghazi, but this attack was the first since the civil war ended with Moammar Gadhafi’s death. The US Ambassador in Libya Chris Stevens, along with a few other Americans, was killed when militants attacked the U.S. diplomatic mission in the eastern city on September 11.

Clearly, France has been a major ally of the Libyan government and such an assault was seen by many as equal in impact as the killing of Ambassador Stevens. The lawlessness in Benghazi prompted U.S., Britain and many others to evacuate the city of their citizens and close their missions.

A senior research fellow at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris, Karim Bitar, told reporters that it is the first time that the capital suffers such an attack. He stressed that it is symbolically important because it is where institutions are. He added that it is a message that such groups can strike pretty much anywhere.

In an article of The Monitor, the following was written: ’’French President Francois Hollande condemned the act, saying it was an attack not just against France but ‘all countries in the international community engaged in fighting terrorism.’ It is unclear what the motive was and whether there is a link to France’s intervention in Mali or its ouster of the late Mr. [Moammar Gadhafi].

Libya is struggling to maintain security and build a unified army two years after the country’s civil war. Libyans have been carrying out protests, demanding that authorities label all militias as illegal groups. They want the militia commanders and their soldiers to be integrated into the army since loyalty strongly exists between commanders and their fighters as a group.

Lawmaker Tawfiq Breik of the National Forces Alliance explained that the number one party benefitting from the attacks is the militias and extremists for any step the country takes, the attacks drag them back.

 In his own words, he stressed that the message to the outside world is that Libya is slipping into terrorism. He added that the goal is to empty the capital of foreign and diplomatic missions like Benghazi and that the big loser is the Libya people if no decisive measures are taken.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was to travel to Tripoli later on Tuesday to assess the situation and return home with the two wounded French guards, at Hollande’s request.