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By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 29 November 2013:
It is still unclear exactly how many people perished in what it is now clear . . .[restrict]was a major explosion in an armaments bunker at the Brak Al-Shatti airbase to the north of Sebha.
Locals are saying that more than 40 people have died, though the area hospital told Reuters that only two dead have been brought in. The lack of bodies may be a result of the force of the blast, which damaged at least two adjacent bunkers, one of which was reportedly still on fire earlier today.
It is understood that there are up to 18 bunkers in this part of the airbase, supposedly separated to avoid an explosion in one triggering a blast in another. A security source at the base has said that the bunker was being pillaged by arms smugglers when the first fatal detonation occurred.
The Libya Herald has still been unable to reach the base commander Colonel Ahmed Al-Hasnawi, who is also the commanding officer of Brigade 144. However the base has been subject to several raids in the last year, the most recent a week ago.
Hasnawi told this paper after that attack that it had been made by “dozens of armed men”, whom he believed has received assistance from people inside the base. He said that heavy weapons ammunition had been completed looted from at least one bunker. [/restrict]
