Libya police officer killed, another injured in Benghazi

Unknown gunmen have killed a police officer and wounded another in two separate attacks in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ibrahim al-Charaa, the spokesman for the city’s security forces, said that the attacks were carried out on Wednesday evening when “unknown shooters gunned down a police officer and seriously wounded another during two separate attacks.”

He went on to say that the assailants fled the scene of the first attack “after firing off a hail of bullets.”

He added that the officer died of his wounds at hospital.

In the second incident, militants opened fire on a police officer who was admitted to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the head, Charaa said.

Benghazi has been caught in spiraling violence since the fall of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s four-decade rule in 2011.

On Tuesday, a soldier was shot dead and a civilian wounded by a bomb under his car in two separate attacks in the city.

On Sunday, at least 13 people were killed and several others injured in an attack on an army base in Benghazi.

On December 20, the head of military intelligence in Benghazi was killed during a visit to his family in nearby Derna, while a day before a man lost his life in a blast in his car in the city of Tobruk.

Libyans rose up against Gaddafi in February 2011 and deposed him in August 2011. He was slain on October 20 of the same year.

The former rebels, who fought to topple Gaddafi, refuse to lay down their arms, despite efforts by the central government to impose law and order.

Many countries have closed their consulates in Benghazi and some foreign airlines have stopped flying there.

Over the past few months, the capital Tripoli and its suburbs have been also hit by violent clashes between rival militias.