7 troops killed in Benghazi — army

BENGHAZI, Libya — Seven Libyan soldiers were killed and more than 60 wounded Thursday in car bombings and clashes with Islamists around the airport in the restive eastern city of Benghazi, military sources said.

Two car bombs targeted an army convoy, killing three soldiers, while four others died in fighting with Islamist militiamen who control most of the city, they said.

A spokesman for the army's special forces said 62 wounded soldiers were transferred to hospital in Al Marj, 100 kilometres east of Benghazi.

Militiamen of the Shura Revolutionary Council, which includes Islamist group Ansar Al Sharia, Wednesday launched a fresh assault on the airport, which houses both civilian and military airfields.

The airport is the last remaining bastion in Benghazi of forces of renegade former general Khalifa Haftar, who in Libya launched a military campaign against the Islamists.

General Sagr Al Jerushi, an aide to Haftar, said warplanes and helicopters were being used to beat back the Islamists' advance on the airport.

The Islamists, who evicted Haftar's forces from their main bases in Benghazi at the end of July, killing dozens of soldiers, have targeted the airport for the past month.