Car Bombing Kills Libyan Army Officer

A Libyan intelligence officer was killed in a car bombing in the eastern city of Benghazi Wednesday three days after a colleague died in the same way, a hospital source said.

"Officer Abusif al-Mabruk succumbed to his wounds" several hours after the blast, Al-Jala hospital spokeswoman Fadia al-Barghathi told Agence France Presse.

A security spokesman, Abdullah Zaidi, said the 44-year-old army intelligence officer had been gravely wounded when a device attached to his car exploded in the city's Al-Berka district.

On Sunday, another military intelligence officer named as Suleiman al-Fissi, was killed when a bomb placed under his car went off.

The explosion also seriously wounded his wife and two children.

Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi, has been rocked by a wave of attacks targeting police and army officers.

Also on Wednesday, army Colonel Issam al-Houidi was wounded in a murder attempt near Derna east of Benghazi, the official LANA news agency reported, adding his life was not in danger.

Security forces also said they found and defused late Tuesday an explosive device in the Benghazi medical center, saying it could have been detonated by remote control.

Authorities have tried to impose order in Benghazi, but attempts to tackle the violence by deploying police and troops have proved ineffective.

Groups of ex-rebels who fought to topple Gadhafi were charged with maintaining security after the uprising, but many have been transformed into militias and have carved out their own fiefdoms across the vast, mostly desert country.