The provisional toll of the victims of last night's double attack near the mosque of Bia al Radwan, in the Salmani district of Benghazi, has risen to 35 dead and 61 injured. Muhammad al Mayar, an eyewitness, told "Agenzia Nova", confirming that the Red Crescent teams are working together with the security forces to recover other bodies. This morning the Al Jala hospital in Benghazi revealed that it had received 71 dead and wounded people at the facility.
So far the exact figures of the victims of the attacks have not been disclosed. Yesterday's double attack is one of the bloodiest in Libya after the revolution that deposed Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The United Nations mission in the North African country condemned on Twitter the "horrible" explosions that caused "many victims" in Benghazi. "Direct or indiscriminate attacks against civilians are prohibited under international humanitarian law and constitute a war crime," the UN mission states.
Among others, the leader of a Salafist militia, known as that of the Madkhali, which is headed by General Khalifa Haftar, lost his life in the attack. This is Ahmed al Fituri who is a well-known Haftar pro Salafist chief present in Benghazi and also head of an investigative team of the “Karama” (Dignity) operation.
He is believed to be the most important figure among those affected in the double blast. The most important of all is al Mahdi al Falah, Haftar's deputy intelligence chief, who was injured in the first explosion, while the Salafist leader seems to have been hit in the next one about 20 minutes later. The command of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) of Haftar of Cyrenaica has denied what was reported this morning by some Libyan media, which spoke of his death in the attack. Another leading exponent of local security killed in the attack is Ahmed al Oraibi, head of the investigation and arrests unit, hit by the second explosion.