Attacks in Libya's Benghazi Kill Three

Three people have been shot dead in the eastern Libyan of Benghazi, where security forces also found the body of a kidnapped banker, security sources said Tuesday.

Benghazi was the cradle of the revolt that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, but since the strongman's ouster it has been rocked by a wave of deadly bombings and shootings.

Late on Monday, gunmen opened fire on a protest tent outside a hotel, killing two people and seriously wounding five others, the source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Most of the protesters were from the Al-Obaidi tribe which is demanding the authorities speed up an investigation into the killing of General Abdel Fatah Yunis al-Obaidi, the source said.

Obaidi, the rebels' military chief in 2011, was killed after being recalled from the frontline in July that year.

On the outskirts of Benghazi, security officers found the body of a kidnapped banker late on Monday, security forces spokesman Abdallah al-Zaidi said.

He said officers found the body of Abdel Latif Zwai, the director of a bank in Benghazi, at a farm in the suburbs.

Zwai had been shot dead, Zaidi added, without saying when he was killed.

Kidnappers seized the banker last month, initially demanding a ransom of 10 million Libyan dinars ($8 million), before lowering it to 8 million dinars, a source close to the victim told AFP.

In other attacks, gunmen on Tuesday shot dead a civilian working for the head of a brigade of ex-rebels that fought Gadhafi, Zaidi said.

Gunmen and bombers have regularly hit members of the security forces in Benghazi, some of whom had ties to the Gadhafi regime.

The latest attacks come as part of surging lawlessness in Libya, where the central government is struggling to impose its authority and train a professional army and police force.

Former rebels were charged with restoring security after the 2011 uprising, but many formed militias and have carved out their own fiefdoms across the vast, mostly-desert nation.