Libya official says Hifter’s chief of staff survived bombing

BENGHAZI, Libya – A spokesman says the chief of staff of the self-styled Libyan national army has survived an attempted assassination by a car bomb in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Ahmed al-Mesmari says Wednesday’s explosion targeted the convoy of Brig. Gen. Abdel-Razek al-Nadhouri in the Sedi Khalifa neighbourhood. He says there were no causalities and didn’t elaborate.

No group has immediately claimed responsibility.

The news came amid a state of uncertainty over the health of Khalifa Hifter, the leader of the eastern-based army, who is in France for medical treatment.

Libya was plunged into chaos following 2011’s uprising and is now split between rival governments, each backed by an array of militias.

Islamic State fighters had established footholds amid the disorder but have been mostly driven out of the main cities