By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, 21 January 2017:
A car exploded opposite the Ministry of Planning in Tripoli tonight. It is thought that it may have been a bomb.
Reports of two people killed and one wounded have not be confirmed. Unusually, the authorities would not allow the media access to the scene until they had throughly cleared it up and removed the vehicle and all trace of the explosion.
A second car was also destroyed in the explosion.
If it was a bomb, the target is unclear. The incident happened in the capital’s central Dahra district, outside the Libya Palace Hotel, used by militias, and close to the Egyptian embassy which is closed. The Italian embassy is some 300 metres away. Both embassies, though, were too far away to be intended targets, although there are suggestions that the vehicle had tried to approach the Italian embassy.
It was untouched.
Italy only just announced it would be the first western country to re-open its Libyan embassy.