(AFP/File, Abdullah Doma)
AFP — An explosion Monday at a guard post outside a Libyan courthouse in Benghazi killed one judiciary policeman and seriously wounded another, officials said.
Libya’s second city, the cradle of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled Moamer Kadhafi, has seen near daily attacks on security forces in recent months as the weak central government has tried to rein in former rebel brigades turned militias.
A security official speaking on condition of anonymity said Monday’s bomb was placed in a guard post outside a courthouse in central Benghazi by unknown assailants.
The Al-Jala hospital confirmed a policeman had been killed and another admitted to its intensive care unit.
On Sunday a former soldier working in Benghazi’s port was shot dead by unknown assailants, said the same sources.
Police were separately investigating the kidnapping on Sunday of the six-year-old child of a Benghazi newspaper editor, which came after threats to blackmail him, said another security official.
The security official said the father told police the child was taken from in front of the house by “four turbaned men”.
The government has struggled to rein in the myriad rebel brigades which ended the four-decade-old dictatorship of Kadhafi, who was killed in October 2011.
The former rebels have since formed powerful militias, many of which have refused to lay down their arms or join the formal security forces.
Militants have also launched attacks on foreign missions in Benghazi, including the storming of the US consulate on September 11, 2012, in which the ambassador and three other Americans were killed.
