BENGHAZI: Seven Libyan soldiers were killed on Friday when militants of the self-styled Islamic State stormed a checkpoint manned by forces loyal to the official government, military officials said.

Five soldiers were killed and 15 have been missing since the IS fighters attacked the checkpoint outside the eastern town of Ajdabiya, near the oil port of Bregaattack, one military official said. Two more soldiers were killed when the government sent reinforcements. Five were wounded.

“Fighting is continuing some 100 kilometers outside Ajdabiya,” one official said.

The IS has exploited a growing security vacuum in Libya, where two governments and parliaments are fighting for control four years after the toppling of Muamer Qadhafi.

The official prime minister has been based in the east, working with his cabinet out of hotels, since the capital, Tripoli, was seized by a rival group that set up its own government.

Both sides command loose coalitions of former anti-Qadhafi rebels. After Qadhafi’s ouster, the various factions split along political, regional and tribal lines.

Militants loyal to IS, the group which has seized much of Syria and Iraq, has built up a large presence in Sirte, to the west of Ajdabiya.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2015

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