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Page added on December 31, 2014
Suicide bombing targets Libyan parliament
A suicide bomber detonated a car laden with explosives in front of a hotel where Libya’s elected parliament was in session in the eastern city of Tobruk on Tuesday, wounding three deputies and eight others, the assembly’s spokesman said.
The bombing is the biggest attack on the parliament since it set up in Tobruk, near the Egyptian border. The assembly, which was elected in June, shifted its seat to Tobruk for security reasons after violence in its planned location, the eastern port city of Benghazi, worsened.
The car exploded in a parking lot near the entrance gate to the hotel as lawmakers sat in a nearby hall, parliamentary spokesman Farraj Hashem told Reuters by phone. Three deputies and eight hotel staff were wounded, he said.
Until now, Tobruk has been relatively secure compared to the rest of Libya, which has been in violent turmoil since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled nearly four years ago. A car bomb in November targeted the city, but not parliament itself.
Libya’s conflict is pitting former rebel brigades which helped oust Gaddafi in 2011 but now fight for power and a share of Africa’s biggest oil reserves.
Details of Tuesday’s bombing were not clear. Another lawmaker at the scene said the attack was a car bomb, not a suicide attack. Officials often contradict themselves in Libya, which has no efficient state institutions or police.
The House of Representatives in Tobruk is allied to the internationally recognised government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, who was also forced to relocate after Libya Dawn took control of the capital.
Thinni is based in the city of Bayda, while the parliament set up in the Tobruk hotel. An initial plan to relocate to the port city of Benghazi was called off as it was judged too dangerous.
Libya Dawn has established its own parliament in Tripoli, though this has not been recognised by world powers.
The conflict has been complicated by a separate battle in Benghazi where Thinni’s forces have merged with troops of a former general fighting Islamists.
Tobruk is located east of the coastal town of Derna, a hotspot for Al Qaeda sympathisers and other radicals.
3 Comments on "Suicide bombing targets Libyan parliament"
bobinget on Wed, 31st Dec 2014 10:26 am
Because Libya’s cursed oil wealth is multiples higher then Syria’s,we should expect mortal combat to extend into 2020 and beyond.
From time to time there will be exports to obtain needed cash to continue fighting. Currently, oil markets are pretending nothing of any LT consequence occurred.
I don’t say Libya is the new Syria lightly.
There is simply too much light oil at stake for
non African forces not to take military interest.
Best of all. Instead of openly ‘going after oil’
Allied forces will maintain, stoutly they “are Fighting Terrorism”
JuanP on Wed, 31st Dec 2014 11:17 am
Lybia had the highest quality of life in all of Africa before NATO liberated it. I liked Gadaffi, he was a smart good mean MF SOB. Exactly what Lybia needed. He will be remembered as the best Lybian leader ever.
Sovereignty and independence will not be allowed. TPTB will do whatever to enslave allof us. Noone will be spared.
Bob Owens on Wed, 31st Dec 2014 12:30 pm
With the tank farm burning, oil fields shut down, civil war going on for the oil scraps, we can write off any more exports from Libya. A few more years of the oil fields being idle will so deteriorate them that they will never be able to produce as they have in the past. The world will have to do without their oil in the future. One by one, the ME countries are sinking into anarchy and their oil production is going offline. The world is adjusting by sinking into recession and reducing demand. Without regional stability you can’t produce oil.