Members of the Libyan Rapid intervention force patrol at a checkpoint in Benghazi on May 16, 2013. A colonel in the restive Libyan city of Benghazi escaped a bomb attack after discovering the device placed under his car outside his home, (AFP/File)
BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) – A colonel in the restive Libyan city of Benghazi escaped a bomb attack on Tuesday after discovering the device placed under his car outside his home, a security official said.
The incident comes a day after a TV journalist survived an attack in Benghazi after coming under a hail of bullets.
Colonel Jelal al-Arafi discovered the device and immediately ran away from the vehicle when the bomb exploded, security spokesman Colonel Abdallah al-Zayedi said.
"He was injured in the foot and underwent surgery at a hospital in Benghazi," Zayedi said, adding that this was an "attempted assassination."
Cradle of the 2011 uprising that ousted long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Benghazi has been rocked by a series of killings of soldiers and police who served under the former regime.
In recent days, journalists have also come under attack.
On Monday, Khadija al-Ammami, director of Libya Al-Ahrar television's Benghazi office, was shot at several times when she was in her car on the way to her office but miraculously survived, a colleague said.
She later received telephone threats that she would be killed next time.
That attack came three days after a Libyan doctor who hosted a television programme on human development was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Benghazi, Libya's second city.
Azzedine Koussad, a presenter for Libya Al-Hurra television, was hit by several rounds as he sat in his parked car.
Libya's new authorities have struggled to re-establish order and form a professional army since Kadhafi's overthrow and their efforts to woo militiamen to join the security forces have been scorned.
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