BENGHAZI, Libya: A Libyan intelligence officer was killed and another wounded Sunday when their car exploded in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, a security spokesman said.
A bomb planted in the car, which belonged to one of the officers, was remotely detonated when the two got into the vehicle in a busy shopping district in Benghazi, Supreme Security Committee spokesman Abdul-Moneim al-Hurr told Reuters.
Hurr had earlier said that a bomb had exploded, killing the driver of a car who was carrying the device, and that a passenger had been wounded and taken to hospital. But he later said the two men in the car had been the targets of the explosion and that they were both intelligence officers.
A Reuters journalist saw parts of a body inside the wrecked car. The street was closed off by dozens of police and military officials.
The Libyan government is struggling to control a myriad of armed individuals and militias that gained power during an armed conflict that ousted Moammar Gadhafi last year. Benghazi was the birthplace of the revolt.
Gamal Abdul-Nasser Street is the largest and busiest in Benghazi, home to many shops, cafes and restaurants. It is also close to one of the city’s busiest hotels, the Tebesty.
Benghazi has been hit by several attacks this year on international convoys and organizations as well as some Western missions.
