Sunday, December 28, 2014

Car Bomb Hits Libyan Diplomatic Security Building While Rebel Regime Bombs Misrata
Libya capital under counter-revolutionary neo-colonialist rule.
Tripoli
Saturday, 27 December 2014

A car bomb exploded Saturday outside the diplomatic security building in Tripoli but caused no casualties, a Libyan official said, with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group claiming responsibility.

Colonel Mubarak Abu Dhaheer, who heads the security department in charge of protecting diplomatic missions, said the blast in central Tripoli caused some damage to the building but that no one was hurt.

“This is a criminal act aimed at undermining security and stability and at targeting policemen tasked with guarding diplomatic missions,” said Abu Dhaheer.

ISIS said it carried out the bombing, according to the U.S.-based monitoring group SITE Intelligence.

“The provincial division of the ISIS for Tripoli, Libya, claimed a car bombing at the diplomatic security building in the capital, and provided a photo of the blast,” SITE said.

Three years after Revolutionary Pan-Africanist Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and killed in a NATO-backed revolt, Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and run by rival governments and parliaments.

Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn), a coalition of Islamist militias, seized Tripoli in August after weeks of deadly fighting with a nationalist group.

The violence triggered an exodus of foreigners from the Libyan capital and prompted the closure of several embassies, with many relocating to neighboring countries.

Abu Dhaheer said police were investigating the car bombing and were also looking into a fire that broke out at the shuttered Saudi embassy, damaging three cars.

In November, two car bombs struck near the shuttered Egyptian and United Arab Emirates embassies in Tripoli. Italy is one of the few countries to keep an embassy open in the Libyan capital.


Libya's rebel regime conducts air strikes on Misrata

6:44am EST

TRIPOLI -- Forces loyal to Libya's imperialist recognized regime staged air strikes on targets in Misrata on Sunday in the first such attacks on the city allied to an armed group that seized the capital in the summer, officials and residents said.

The North African country, a major oil producer, has been engulfed in fighting between the two sides, each with its own government and parliament.

The imperialist recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni has been forced to run a rump state in the east since a group known as Libya Dawn took control of Tripoli in August, setting up a rival government and parliament.

Mohamed El Hejazi, spokesman for armed forces loyal to Thinni, said his air force had attacked Misrata's port, an air force academy near the airport and Libya's biggest steel plant, which is located in the western city.

Ismail Shukri, spokesman for forces allied to Libya Dawn, confirmed that air strikes had taken place but said they caused no damage.

"The airport at Misrata is still working normally. A flight has just taken off," he said.

Misrata, 200 km (125 miles) east of Tripoli, is linked to Libya Dawn and home to a major sea port and free trade zone. The city had so far escaped the fighting that has threatened to break up Libya.

The air strikes came two weeks after a force allied to Libya Dawn moved east to try seize the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf oil ports.

Since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011 by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Pentagon and NATO, Libya has failed to attain stability. Former rebel brigades which once fought side by side have now turned on each other, aligning themselves with rival political factions in a scramble for control.

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