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Car bomb explodes in central Tripoli, Libya, near Italian embassy
Tripoli, Libya: A car bomb exploded late on Saturday close to the recently reopened Italian embassy in the Libyan capital, a security official said.
It was not clear who was responsible for the blast. Two charred bodies were recovered from the car, according to a statement on a social media page run by a local branch of the Red Crescent, but the identity of the occupants was unknown.
Security officers supervise as a forklift moves a car that exploded near the Italian embassy in Tripoli on Saturday.Credit:AP
Some vehicles parked nearby were also hit, but damage from the blast, which could be heard at least a kilometre away, was limited.
The security official, who did not want to be named, said it appeared that explosives had been planted in the car.
Fighters affiliated to the Tripoli government rest and reload weapons during an offensive against IS militants in Sirt, Libya.Credit:AP
The blast occurred next to the Ministry of Planning and near the Egyptian embassy, which is closed. The Italian embassy is some 350 metres away.
A Reuters reporter at the scene said roads had been cordoned off near the site of the blast, and dozens of security officials and vehicles had been deployed in the area. The wreckage of the car that exploded was quickly removed.
Italy became the first Western country to reopen its embassy in Tripoli earlier this month. Most countries closed their embassies in 2014 and early 2015 after heavy fighting and attacks in the city.
Tripoli is home to a large number of rival militias, some of which oppose the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) that Italy has strongly supported.
The inside of the car involved in the bombing.Credit:AP
Islamic State is known to have sleeper cells in Tripoli, and it has claimed attacks there in the past, including against embassies.
The GNA backed a recent seven-month campaign to oust IS from its former North African stronghold of Sirt, about 450 kilometres east of Tripoli.
Civilians gather around the remains of a car bomb in the Rakban camp, near Syria's border with Jordan.Credit:AP
The reopening of the Italian embassy drew protests from factions in eastern Libya who oppose the GNA and are aligned with a rival government based there.
A car bomb earlier on Saturday killed at least four people and critically injured a number of others at the Rakban refugee camp in Syria near the border with Jordan, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring organisation.
The camp is home to refugees and also to rebel groups, including the Jaish al-Ashair, which fight both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and IS, and was targeted by bombings last year.
More than 75,000 people live in Rakban. Millions of Syrians have fled their homes during the civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands since it began in 2011.
Attacks last year targeted a Jaish al-Ashair checkpoint in the camp in October, killing three people and a military post nearby in July, killing six Jordanian border guards.
Rakban is located in a desert area of the long border between Syria and Jordan, near to territory held by IS, which regards the Syrian and Jordanian governments and other rebel groups as its enemies.
Although IS has lost much of its territory in Iraq and northern Syria since 2015, it has in recent weeks attempted to expand and consolidate its presence in central and eastern Syria with campaigns in Palmyra and Deir al-Zor.
Reuters