{"id":8758,"date":"2014-05-03T16:20:31","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T08:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=8758"},"modified":"2014-05-08T15:47:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T07:47:51","slug":"9-soldiers-and-policemen-killed-in-libya-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/03\/9-soldiers-and-policemen-killed-in-libya-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"9 soldiers and policemen killed in Libya attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23Libya&amp;src=hash\">#Libya<\/a>: Gunmen in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23Benghazi&amp;src=hash\">#Benghazi<\/a> have raided a security headquarters, military sources said &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/hazdCCBlPW\">http:\/\/t.co\/hazdCCBlPW<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/OdyGIsNTG5\">pic.twitter.com\/OdyGIsNTG5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; BBC Africa (@BBCAfrica) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCAfrica\/statuses\/462183131668574208\">May 2, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">TRIPOLI, Libya \u00a0&#8212; Gunmen attacked a security forces headquarters in Libya&#8217;s eastern city of Benghazi early Friday, killing nine people and wounding 24, authorities said, blaming an Islamic extremist group allegedly behind the attack of a U.S. diplomatic post there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">A security official said the attack started when dozens of gunmen opened fire with machine guns and mortars. The onslaught lasted for an hour, with the fighting heard miles away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">Libyan commandos later arrived and fought the attackers, though the official said they suffered heavy casualties. A statement issued by the interim government and read by Cabinet spokesman Ahmed al-Amin put the death toll at nine people. Milad al-Zowi, a commando spokesman, said the dead were six army commandos and three police officers. Al-Zowi said that three soldiers and a police officer were missing after the battle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">A local hospital official said some of the slain troops were badly butchered, with some corpses burned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">The official said his hospital treated 24 people wounded in the fighting, with most suffering gunshot wounds to the chest and the abdomen. Some were in critical condition, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">The government said a number of militants were killed, while others were wounded and arrested. The statement did not elaborate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">Attackers likely tried to get their hands on a car loaded with weapons and ammunition that the security forces had confiscated the previous night, authorities added. A security official at the Benghazi headquarters, Gamal al-Amami, said the driver of the vehicle belonged to the Libya Shield militia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">The hospital official and security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">The government&#8217;s statement blamed Ansar al-Shariah, a hard-line Islamist militia, for Friday&#8217;s attack, along with other &#8220;criminal groups.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">The government condemned the attack and said they will not accept &#8220;the presence of armed and illegal terrorist groups.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">Ansar al-Shariah is blamed for the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11, 2012.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">In January, the U.S. State Department designated the two branches of the Ansar al-Shariah in Libya and a third branch in Tunisia as foreign terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">Benghazi, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising that led to the downfall of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, has witnessed a series of attacks, targeted killings and bombings, mostly striking soldiers and police officers who served under the ousted ruler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">Libya has seen a severe deterioration in security and the government has depended on unruly militias in the absence of a strong police force or a unified military.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">On Tuesday, a car bomb exploded in front of a military compound in Benghazi, killing two soldiers and wounding two. Later Friday, a car bomb killed a soldier driving his vehicle in Benghazi, officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"color: #363636;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#Libya: Gunmen in #Benghazi have raided a security headquarters, military sources said &#8211; http:\/\/t.co\/hazdCCBlPW pic.twitter.com\/OdyGIsNTG5 &mdash; BBC Africa (@BBCAfrica) May &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":8759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[452,2815,878,2814],"class_list":["post-8758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-w","tag-attack","tag-benghazi","tag-libya","tag-soldiers-killed","mauthors-esam-mohamed","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}