A rogue ex-Libyan general resumed air strikes on jihadists in the city of Benghazi today, while gunmen attacked an interior ministry team in Tripoli tasked with protecting the outgoing government.
Amid the ever-worsening insecurity in the North African country, Washington urged US citizens there to leave "immediately" and was even readying a possible evacuation of its embassy.
Forces loyal to former general Khalifa Haftar carried out an air raid on a jihadist camp on the outskirts of Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 uprising that ousted long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi, ex-rebels told AFP.
"A warplane carried out raids on a camp of the 'February 17 Martyrs Brigades,' hitting it with two missiles," said Ahmed al-Jazaoui, without reporting casualties.
Haftar, who returned to Libya from American exile to join the uprising against Kadhafi, launched a deadly anti-jihadist campaign in Benghazi on May 16 when warplanes also bombed February 17 positions.
Subsequent fighting killed at least 79 people.
The powerful brigade is made up of Islamist ex-rebels, including radicals, and is suspected of links with Ansar Al-Sharia, a group classified as a terrorist group by Washington.
On the political front, the cabinet office condemned an attack late yesterday on an interior ministry force in charge of protecting the government, in which there were no casualties.
The incident in Tripoli was the work of "outlaws," said the government of outgoing premier Abdullah al-Thani, who resigned last month and is to hand over to his contested successor, Islamist-backed businessman Ahmed Miitig.
Witnesses said a pro-Islamist militia was behind the raid on the interior ministry unit, which opposes the nomination of Miitig, himself targeted in an attack hours earlier.
The team, which the outgoing administration had called in for protection only hours earlier, was evicted from the cabinet offices.
Libya's interim General National Congress passed a vote of confidence in a Miitig-led government, which critics have charged was "illegally elected" and imposed by Islamists.
