13 soldiers killed, dozens wounded in Libya's Benghazi

At least 13 Libyan soldiers were killed and more than 70 wounded Thursday in car bombings and clashes with Islamists around the airport in the restive eastern city of Benghazi, military sources said. Two car bombs targeted an army convoy, killing three soldiers, while at least 10 others died in fighting with Islamist militiamen who control most of the city, they said.
A spokesman for the army's special forces said 70 wounded soldiers were taken to hospital in Al-Marj, 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Benghazi. At the same time, a source at Benghazi's Al-Hawari hospital said 23 wounded Islamists had been admitted there, some of them in critical condition. On Wednesday, militiamen of the Shura Revolutionary Council, which includes Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, launched a fresh assault on the airport, which has both civilian and military airfields. The airport is the last remaining bastion in Benghazi of forces of former general Khalifa Haftar, who launched a military campaign against the Islamists in May.