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By Abdelsalam Adel and Maha Sulaiman.
Benghazi, 6 May 2016:
Five people, including a woman and a child, were killed this afternoon when . . .[restrict]shells were fired into demonstration in Benghazi’s Kish Square late this afternoon. Some 40 people were injured, with conditions varying from critical to mild.
The attack is being blamed on the so-called Islamic State and is seen as linked to the Libyan National Army’s advance towards Sirte to liberate it and crush IS.
The demonstrators – numbers are put at no more than a few dozen – had gathered in Kish Square this afternoon in support of the LNA and to protest against both the Government of National Accord in Tripoli and any foreign interference in Libya. Four mortars were then fired into the demonstration.
According to a spokesperson for the city’s Jalaa Hospital, it received five bodies, including those of a woman and a young boy. These were then sent to the Benghazi Medical Centre.
Meanwhile, security sources say that the building from which the mortars were fired was pinpointed and aircraft sent to attack it. These, however, then came under anti-aircraft fire although none was hit.
The head of Benghazi Security Directorate, Mustafa Al-Ragaig, who went to Kish Square after the attack has hailed the dead and wounded as “martyrs and heroes”, saying that the LNA would not be deterred from attacking IS. “We are at the gate of Sirte,” he said. “Nothing will stop us. We will continue,” he declared.
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