Libya Cmdr. escapes attempt on life*

A rebel from Misrata tests his gun near Bani Walid, Libya the rebel A senior Libyan commander has survived an attempt on his life by unidentified assailants in the North African country’s restive city of Benghazi, security officials say. Ibrahim al-Shara, a Libyan security spokesman, said on Saturday that unknown armed men opened fire on the car of Abdullah al-Saiti, commander of Benghazi’s security operations center, while driving in the central part of the city, but the official escaped the assassination attempt. The attack was carried out a day after at least eight Libyan soldiers were killed and 15 wounded during clashes between security forces and armed militiamen in the eastern city of Benghazi on Friday. In a similar act of violence on March 17, 10 soldiers lost their lives in a series of car bomb explosions that rocked a military base in the restive city. Also on April 29, several people were wounded after gunmen raided the Libyan parliament in the capital of Tripoli and forced Libyan lawmakers to abandon a vote on the country’s next prime minister. Nearly three years after the fall of Libya’s former dictator Muammar Gaddafi in a popular revolution, the North African country is still plagued by lawlessness and insecurity with armed groups flexing their muscles. A powerful force in the increasingly lawless African state, the militias have been rejecting calls from a weak central government to leave the capital. The former rebels refuse to lay down their arms despite efforts by the central government to impose law and order.