9 killed in Daesh car bomb attack in Libya's Derna

A car bomb attack claimed by Daesh group has killed nine people and wounded dozens in Libya's eastern coastal city of Derna, a medical source said.

"Nine persons were killed and dozens wounded in a car bomb in Derna city" on Sunday night, a medical official in eastern Libya told AFP by telephone.

"Some of the dead and wounded are civilians."

Daesh said it was behind the attack and that it was carried out by a Sudanese militant.

"The martyr Abu Jaafar al-Sudani blew up his car bomb... in the city of Derna, causing many dead and wounded," read a statement the group posted online.

The jihadist group's fighters last month lost control of Derna, which had been a bastion of Daesh since late last year. IS promised to avenge its fighters in a video posted online.

After the fall of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, Libya now has two governments vying for power in the oil-rich country, one based in Tripoli in the west and another internationally recognised in Tobruk, to the east of Derna.
Source: AFP