Off the wire
• (Sports Focus) Cahill brace ends China's run at Asian Cup  • ECB keeps interest rates unchanged, to announce further monetary policy measures  • New Armenian Genocide film "1915" to be screened in 2015  • Shining Cahill guides Socceroos to semis with 2-0 win over China  • Result of China against Australia at Asian Cup quarter-finals  • Zambia's opposition leader concedes defeat in presidential election  • 1st LD: Mubarak's sons released pending retrial in embezzlement case  • Roundup: Suicide car bomb kills 3, wounds 18 in S. Afghanistan  • UN concerned over chaos due to DR Congo's electoral law  • Shinning Cahill guides Socceroos beat China 2-0 to semis  
You are here: 　 Home

Gunmen kill security chief in Libya's Sirte

Xinhua, January 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

The security chief of Libya's western city of Sirte was assassinated by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, according to local officials.

Colonel Sanusi Kaabh, along with his driver, was shot by a gang of militants in Sirte's downtown area, a security official who declined to disclose his name said.

The security official added that the vice president of Sirte's local council narrowly survived in a similar assassination attempt just two days ago.

Also on Thursday, an official from Libya's Health Ministry was abducted in the capital city of Tripoli.

Security sources confirmed the official was Akram Abu Ras, but the motivation behind the incident was not immediately known.

Tripoli and Sirte are now both under control by the Islamist armed alliance Libya Dawn, who has been warring against the Libyan army since July.

The security conditions in the North Africa country has been plagued by assassinations, kidnappings and armed robberies since the removal of the former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Endit