Unidentified gunmen fired shots at the South Korean embassy in Tripoli yesterday, killing two locally employed security guards, Xinhua and Yonhap news agencies reported.
The assailants fired from a car at the embassy compound, killing two people and wounding another, Xinhua quoted a local security official as saying.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing a government official in Seoul, said none of the casualties were South Korean.
Photo: Reuters
South Korean foreign ministry officials were not immediately available for comment, and the South Korean embassy in Tripoli could not be contacted.
Elsewhere, at least 10 people have been killed in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi in fighting between army forces and extremist groups, medics said on Saturday.
A tank battalion and armed youths fought with forces belonging to the Majlis al-Shura, a collection of armed groups including Muslim militants, in a southern district for much of Friday, Libyan army officials said.
As well as the 10 soldiers killed, about 55 were wounded, medics said on Saturday, when much of the city was quiet after gunfire had been heard in several districts the day before.
The fighting mirrors the wider struggle in the oil-producing North African state where two governments and parliaments, allied to rival armed groups, are vying for control almost four years after the ousting of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
The unrecognized government, which controls the capital, Tripoli, in western Libya, has pledged to the back the extremists in the east after the forces of the internationally recognized government launched an offensive against them in October last year.
The army, which is loyal to the official government, expelled the extremists from the airport area and from several camps the army had lost during the summer last year.
However, fighting has been raging on in several other parts.
The recognized Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani, was forced to leave Tripoli in August last year for the eastern city of Bayda when a group called Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) seized the capital.
The Tripoli government, which is backed by some Muslim groups, said it would support Majlis al-Shura.
Part of Majlis al-Shura is the militant group of Ansar al-Shariah, blamed by Washington for an assault on the US consulate in Benghazi 2012, which killed the US ambassador.
“The national salvation government confirms ... giving full support, without limits, to Majlis al-Shura troops,” the Tripoli government said in a statement posted on the Cabinet Web site. It gave no details.
The Tripoli rulers have not been recognized by the UN or world powers. Both sides have fought each other on several fronts, undermining six months of UN meditation efforts which have produced little progress.
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