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By Libya Herald staff
Tripoli and Benghazi, 22 December 2013:
In the first attack of its kind in Libya, seven people died and . . .[restrict]12 were injured when a suicide bomber in a truck hit a military checkpoint at Bersis, 50 kilometres east of Benghazi early this morning.
“The incident took place at 1.30 am today” Benghazi Joint Security Room spokesman Ibrahim Shara, told the Libya Herald ” The suicide bomber blew himself up in Toyota Cruiser vehicle”.
One account of the attack has the suicide bomber ramming his vehicle into a checkpoint. Another is that he had parked some distance away and detonated his explosives when a soldiers went to check him. Civilians are reportedly among the dead and injured.
The first use of a suicide bomber in Libya has caused widespread shock.
“What happened in Bersis has only seen in Iraq and Afghanistan “ said Shara, “This was a critical and dangerous attack which is moving the country to a dangerous stage”.
He added that the security forces have began investigations into who was behind the attack. However, he added that suicide attacks were difficult because so much evidence was destroyed in the explosion. Poor quality TV footage showed the attack site when it had not been cordoned off. Soldiers and civilians appeared to be moving at random among the wreckage.
This is not the first time that Bersis has been the scene of a terror attack. Following the capture last month of a group of Ansar Al-Sharia fighters near Bersis in a vehicle carrying weapons and explosives, there was a failed ambush on a convoy carrying the prisoners. Later, on 28 November, three members of Mushat Al-Awal, the 1st Marines Battalion, were killed and seven injured in clashes in Bersis.
The commander of Saiqa Forces, Wanis Bukhamada, said at the time on television that the attackers were members of Ansar Al-Sharia.
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