Fierce clashes erupted in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi Friday between Islamists and forces led by a retired general seeking to purge it of “terrorists”, an AFP journalist and witnesses said.
The witnesses said a group led by Khalifa Haftar, a former rebel chief in the 2011 uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi, was backed by warplanes that pounded a barracks occupied by the Islamist “February 17 Brigade” militia.