Three dead in Benghazi rocket attack

Three people have been killed after a rocket hit a medical centre in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Friday.

Medics said that another seven people were wounded when the rocket hit.

It is not known who had launched the rocket towards the medical facilitiy, which dispatches ambulances.

In March, Libya’s army chief Khalifa Haftar had promised that his forces would take control of Benghazi from Islamist militias within a month.

Haftar, 72, was sworn in on March 9 as the new army leader in the conflict-wracked North African country and promoted to general, a week after his nomination by the elected parliament.

He said the offensive in Benghazi, which he has dubbed Operation Dignity, was to “answer the repeated calls of the Libyan people for the return of the army to combat terrorism in the region.”

But the Media Center for Benghazi Residents, an NGO in Benghazi, said last week that over 28,000 families have been displaced from the war-torn city since fighting between armed militias and forces loyal to the government in Tobruk began last October.

Since the overthrow of dictator Mummar Gadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, Libya has been wracked by conflict, with rival governments and powerful militias battling for control of key cities and the country’s oil riches.