TRIPOLI, (PNA/Xinhua) — At least 13 Libyan soldiers were killed by gunmen who raided a national army checkpoint southeast of the capital Tripoli on Saturday dawn, local sources told Xinhua.
The attack took place at Rishrash gate on the road linking Tarhouna and Bani Walid where a group of unidentified militants assaulted the checkpoint of the national army’s first infantry brigade, the sources said.
The Libyan News Agency reported that five others were injured in the attack.
Bani Walid, one of the last strongholds of the former regime and central city of the powerful Warfalla tribe, remains violent after the civil war.
Libyan authorities have been struggling to re-establish security in the oil-rich country since Muammar Gaddafi was killed in October 2011.
However, more than two years after Gaddafi’s death, armed groups that toppled him are still powerful and control large swathes of the North African country.