BENGHAZI, Libya, June 13 (Reuters) – A bomb exploded outside
a television station in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on
Thursday, damaging a wall but causing no injuries, an employee
said.
The blast also created a large whole in the ground outside
the Libya al-Hurra TV channel. Security officials were sent to
secure the area.
“We just heard a loud explosion and came outside to see. The
front gate is damaged. We believe it was a bomb,” the employee
told Reuters, adding that it was unclear how the attack was
carried out.
In October, dozens of demonstrators stormed and ransacked
the station’s headquarters, protesting coverage of clashes in a
former stronghold of ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
In a statement this week, the campaign group Reporters
Without Borders said it was “extremely concerned about the
deteriorating security situation in Libya and the behaviour of
certain militias towards media personnel.
“Journalists have repeatedly been attacked, threatened or
kidnapped by militias in recent months,” the statement said.
Benghazi was the cradle of the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi
and has now become a hot spot for violence. At least 31 people
were killed and 100 wounded in clashes between protesters,
eventually backed by government forces, and a militia on
Saturday.
On Wednesday, a senior Libyan army officer survived a gun
attack outside his home, officials said, the latest in a wave of
violence against security officials in the city.
(Reporting by Feras Bosalum; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian;
Editing by Bill Trott)
