Car bombing in Libyan city of Benghazi kills 3, wounds 26

A car bombing outside a hospital in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi killed three people and wounded 26 on Monday, the hospital said, the third attack on the medical facility this year.

The car detonated in the parking lot of Jalaa Hospital, which is located in the heart of the city, at a time when streets around the facility were full of children who had finished school for the day.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mohammed Zwai, a hospital official, said the death toll is expected to rise as several of the wounded remain in critical condition. A police spokesman, Walid al-Urfi, said the car bomb was detonated by remote control.

Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, has been the scene of more than two years of fighting between forces loyal to renegade military commander Khalifa Hifter and Islamic militants, including an ISIS affiliate.

Last week, Hifter’s forces expelled Islamic militants from their key stronghold in the city but deadly fighting continues in other areas.

Libya has been mired in conflict since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, with rival parliaments and governments emerging in the east and west, each backed by an array of militias and tribes.

Hifter answers to the internationally-recognized parliament based in the country’s east. That parliament does not recognize the Western-backed government in the capital of Tripoli, in the country’s west.

Further adding to Libya’s chaos has been the emergence of the ISIS affiliate in the North African country. Forces loyal to the Tripoli government are battling ISIS militants in the central coastal city of Sirte.