By Ashraf Abdul Wahab and Ayman Amzein.
Tripoli and Benghazi, 1 September 2013:
A retired special forces sergeant escaped a booby trap bomb beneath his . . .[restrict]car this afternoon, when the unoccupied vehicle exploded outside his home.
Naser Al-Shaafi had not used his Kia Sportage for some weeks, relying on his family’s second car. However this morning he lent it to a cousin, who drove into Benghazi. Experts at the Benghazi Joint Control room believe that the device, which they said was remote controlled, was attached to the vehicle while it was parked in the town centre.
The cousin returned to Shaafi’s home in the Al-Majouri district and joined him and his family for lunch. Twenty minutes later the bomb exploded, destroying the vehicle but causing no casualties.
Shaafi, aged 50, was an early member of the revolution, joining the rebellion almost at the beginning. His profile is typical of almost all of 76 of the serving or retired soldiers, police as well as activists, who have been murdered in a wave of terror attacks in the last nine months. Each target has been seen as a liberal with no Islamist connections. [/restrict]
