Seven people have been killed at a security checkpoint near
Benghazi in the first known suicide bomb attack in Libya since
the fall of Col
Gaddafi.
The attacker targeted the checkpoint in the village of
Aguiria, some 50km (30 miles) east of Libya's second city.
At least eight people, including soldiers and civilians,
were wounded.
The security situation in and around Benghazi has been
worsening in recent months, with extremist militia blamed for almost daily
attacks.
This latest incident reveals a shift in tactics away from
the bombings and assassinations that have mainly targeted the security
services, the BBC's Rana Jawad reports from Tripoli.
Unlike the rest of the country, many of the militias in the
Eastern region are ideologically driven, she notes.
The suicide bomber detonated a truck load of explosives at
the checkpoint early on Sunday.
"A Toyota truck approached the checkpoint and parked
there," Aymen al-Abdlay, a Benghazi army officer, was quoted by Reuters as
saying.
"There was a young man driving, but when the army
troops went to check it out, the vehicle exploded."
Waiting civilians as well as soldiers were among the victims.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the
village is a known stronghold of the Islamist militia group Ansar al-Sharia,
our correspondent says.
Benghazi has seen the rise of several extremist militia
groups operating in the city since the civil war in 2011 that toppled the
longstanding leader, Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Militias took part in the uprising that led to the fall of
Col Gaddafi but have been told by the interim government to disband or join the
army by the end of the year.
For more than a year, many foreign governments have advised
against all travel to Benghazi by their nationals.
The warnings followed an attack on the US consulate in
September 2012 in which US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other
Americans were killed.
Hardline Islamist groups have since been blamed for that
attack but no-one has been convicted.
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