Frequent attacks cause heavy casualties in Libya

A Libyan army colonel was killed and three soldiers were injured on Sunday in two separate attacks in the eastern city of Benghazi, security and medical sources told Xinhua. A medical source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that Saad Masood Ostal Jamal, an army colonel working in the artillery unit, was shot by unknown assailants in Humaida near Meshaal al- Huaida in Benghazi as he was taking his son to school. Spokesperson of Jalaa Hospital in Benghazi confirmed that Jamal was hit by seven bullets, including five in his head. Also in a separate attack on Sunday afternoon, three soldiers belonging to Libyan Special Forces' 319 Brigade and Thunderbolt were injured after an improvised explosive device targeted them while they were participating in a campaign to clean up Benghazi streets after garbage collectors went on strike over salary complaints. A security officer said that the three soldiers were injured by fragments after the explosive device was thrown at them by unknown assailants in the Laithi area. The eyewitness added that a man driving a Mitsubishi car stopped in front of a garbage collection point and threw a bag on top of the stack, leaving the bag to explode shortly after his departure. Al-Barghati said the victims Mohamed Salem Warfali, Abdullah Faraj Alakora and Ali Ambar Awami were injured by shrapnel from the explosive device. She added that three soldiers are currently recovering in Jalaa Hospital's intensive care unit. Meanwhile, on Friday, Mohamed Osama Akkoush Magbar, an engineer at the civil registry department of the Interior Ministry in Benghazi, was killed by gunmen. Two years after the end of the Libyan civil war in 2011, authorities in the country are still struggling to establish control and rein in the tens of armed militia groups that flourished during the uprising. Reports of targeted killing and kidnappings by armed groups are frequent. Fed up with the uncontrolled militias, protesters gathered in the capital, Tripoli, as well as Benghazi and Derma, which allegedly houses fundamentalist militias, to demonstrate against the militias. The demonstrations in Tripoli left at least 43 dead and more than 450 wounded on Nov. 15. While in Benghazi 9 people were reported to have died and around 50 were injured when heavy clashes erupted on Nov. 25 between the Libyan special forces army and the militia group, Ansar al-Sharia. Since the November clashes, sporadic attacks targeting army and security personal have been hitting the city more frequently.