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By Aimen Amzein, Moutaz Ahmed and Noura Ibrahim.
Benghazi, 12 June 2014:
Only the suicide bomber died in Wednesday night’s attack on the Bersis . . .[restrict]checkpoint east of Benghazi it has now been disclosed. It was initially said that either two or four guards had been killed and six injured.
Clarifying the situation this afternoon however, the commander of the Saiqa Special Forces Investigations Unit, Fadel Al-Hassi, said that no guards had been killed and that the only person to die was the bomber. His remains had been taken to Beida hospital and although it was impossible to make any physical identification, attempts were being made to find out who he was, where he came from and what group he was with.
Spokesman for Khalifa Haftar’s Operation Dignity Mohamed Hejazi confirmed that only the bomber had died. However, four were injured, he said, one seriously, adding that all four would be sent abroad for treatment. The reason for the low number of casualties, he explained, was because the truck that exploded had stopped 100 metres short of the checkpoint.
The attack was “the last desperate act” of people “who had lost the battle” he declared.
Nonetheless, both he and Al-Hassi expressed concerns that there could be other suicide attacks. The truck used in the bombing had been stolen earlier Benghazi’s Hay Salam district, Hijazi said. Other trucks had been stolen there and elsewhere in the city and they could be used as bombs, he added.
The security forces were looking for them, Hassi said – in particular a garbage van stolen in Al Sabri district. “We’re doing our best to find them,” he said.
Both were in bullish mood, however – confident that the fight against the militants was being won. The locations of their arms caches were known and were being attacked. Hijazi added that five vessels carrying weapons to the militants had been attacked and destroyed in the past few days. [/restrict]
