A suicide truck bombing on a police school in Libya’s city of Zliten killed more than 50 people on Thursday, in the deadliest attack to hit the strife-torn country since its 2011 revolution.
A bomber detonated an explosives-laden truck used for carrying water at a police training centre in central Zliten at around 8.30 am (local time), a local security source said.
A witness in Zliten, a coastal city about 170 kilometres east of Tripoli, told AFP some 300 men, mainly coast guards, were inside the compound at the time.
Health ministry spokesperson Ammar Mohammed Ammar said 50 to 55 people had been killed and at least 100 wounded and that victims were being treated in several hospitals. Urgent calls were issued for blood donations.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but the ISIS group, which has been growing in power in Libya, has carried out many suicide bombings in the country.
Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi and has had rival administrations since August 2014, when an Islamist-backed militia alliance overran Tripoli, forcing the government to take refuge in the east.
The internationally recognised government condemned the attack as a “cowardly terrorist act” and called for the lifting of an arms embargo it says has prevented authorities from tackling ISIS.
Meanwhile, a deputy defence minister for the Tripoli-based government, Mohammad Bashir al-Naas, vowed to avenge the attack.
“The perpetrator is not known but he is a coward. He kills our sons from the shadows. We must avenge them and do everything possible to protect them,” Mr Naas told a press conference.
The United Nations is pressing Libya’s rival sides to implement a power-sharing deal agreed in Decenber on forming a unity government.
