Deadly car bombs rock Tripoli on first day of Eid

Mahmud Turkia / AFP - Getty Images

Libyan security forces inspect the remains of a vehicle near the Ministry of Interior in Tripoli after twin blasts killed two people in the Libyan capital early Sunday.

At least two people were killed when three car bombs exploded near interior ministry and security buildings in the Libyan capital on Sunday, the first lethal attack of its kind since Moammar Gadhafi’s fall last year, according to reports.

One of the victims was killed by a blast near a police academy on one of Tripoli’s main streets, Omar al-Mukhtar, regional news channel Al Arabiya reported.

The blasts took place just before dawn as worshippers prepared for mass morning prayers marking Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim celebration that marks the end of the fasting month Ramadan.


Ambulances and firefighters rushed to the scenes of the blasts and large numbers of police cordoned off the sites before starting to remove the charred vehicles, Reuters reported.

Pictures of one of the car bombs, posted on Twitter by UK-based Libya political observer Mohamed Eljarh, were taken by eyewitness Ahmed Abdulgader, Eljarh said.

The first bomb blew up near the interior ministry's administrative offices in Tripoli but caused no casualties, security sources told Reuters. On arriving at the site of the explosion, police found another car bomb that had not blown up.

Minutes later, two car bombs exploded near the former headquarters of a women's police academy, which the defense ministry has been using for interrogations and detentions, the sources said, k il ling two people, both civilians, and wounding two.

The buildings targeted by the bombers are in residential areas at the heart of the capital, Tripoli.

Sporadic violence has remained a problem in Libya despite the peaceful transfer of power to the new government after elections in July, the first in decades following the overthrow last year of Moammar Gadhafi after 42 years in power.

The International Committee of the Red Cross announced that it was suspending its activities in Benghazi, Libya's second biggest city, and Misrata after one of its compounds in Misrata was attacked with grenades and rockets.

The fate of seven Iranian relief workers, official guests of the Libyan Red Crescent Association, remains unknown almost three weeks after they were kidnapped by gunmen in the heart of Benghazi.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Shouldn't that headline read: "Deadly car bombs rock Tripoli on first day of IED?"

  • 4 votes
Reply#6 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 6:09 AM EDT

So this is what ALI BABA & THE FORTY THIEVES achieved in Libya? MAGNIFICENT RESULTS.

  • 2 votes
Reply#7 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 6:15 AM EDT

What happened to obummers promise of world peace with everyones conflicts being resolved with him sitting down with them and working out every little detail?

  • 3 votes
Reply#8 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:17 AM EDT

He tried sitting down over a few beers with them in front of the cameras, but Muslims don't drink (on camera).

  • 2 votes
#8.1 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:51 AM EDT

World peace ....I should say 'our peace' was thrown to the corporate warmongers and supported by our greedy congress thanx to the Axis of Evil...Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

  • 2 votes
#8.2 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 11:30 AM EDT
Reply

I really wish that I had to think really, really, long and hard when wondering if the middle east and US, he// for that matter the world. If they are in anyway, better off today, than yesterday.

  • 1 vote
Reply#9 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:45 AM EDT

Hello folks, It's time we all say enough is enough! No more wars and no more bankster bail outs!

  • 3 votes
Reply#10 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:28 AM EDT

Couldn't have said it better myself, Trust! Looks like our 'no fly zone' meddling mission worked out well THERE, eh??

Nah, it's back to their old tricks. Could have set our watches to it.

Top of morning to you. Good 'seeing' you.

  • 1 vote
#10.1 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:49 AM EDT
Reply

The Middle East is the Land of da Devil. The U S should just stay out of there. They will never have Peace.

Why do all the Middle Eastern women have to dress up like “Cousin It”?

Hopefully there will come a day when we can tell them to “Drink their Oil and Eat their Sand”.

Remember Republicans, when these Foreign Countries ask for Aid and Funding….just say No.

Cut off all Funding to Foreign Countries, especially Pakistan. Why are we giving them Billions of $$$$$$ just to be our “Little Friend”? Did they Apologize for Hiding Out Bin Laden?

You Bet Cha….Fer Sure

  • 1 vote
Reply#11 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:59 AM EDT

maddy and trust, good comments put simply exactly how would the world be a better place after a war?

There is always going to be war whether we like it or not it as natural as breathing oxygen in the air and we have been doing it for a very long time. The fact is America was built by war so what makes you think we can just stop?

We need to fight it is in our blood, our economy rings true to the same words with competition and inequality.

I get ahead of myself though, regarding Lybia I can't believe people thought a nation which was known as the pinnacle of African modernization and moral code would be better off in the hands of fundamentalists rather than a secular government who actually spoke ill against Islam?

  • 2 votes
Reply#12 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:04 AM EDT

Islam, the religion of peace. Such nice peaceful folk.

  • 1 vote
Reply#13 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:31 AM EDT

our stupid government keeps letting these murderous muslims into this country. soon our cities will take on the characteristics of Londonstan..

  • 2 votes
Reply#14 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:32 AM EDT

Londonstan I like that good name lol

  • 1 vote
Reply#15 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:34 AM EDT

JCB yes Islam is the religion of peace but then again isn't all religion?

I mean you wouldn't come out and say that your religion is the belief of mass slaughter and hell on earth would you? I mean not even satanists let that slip through their teeth lol.

    Reply#16 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:37 AM EDT

    Warlord, "religion", "God" are made up fantasies, that supposedly answer questions that have no answers. Religion is just a pacifier for the billion on this planet who need to believe that they are not alone, which they are, just like you apparently.

      #16.1 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 3:05 PM EDT

      JCB if you think I am religious then you must be the freaking pope lol.

      I am definitely anit religion but I believe to let people live the way they want period even if that means they like to make people suffer let them and then deal with them your way. Whether god truly exists or not is of no consequence except for if he truly is then you and me will go to hell but then I don't care about suffering either.

        #16.2 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 3:15 PM EDT

        on another note JCB you mean you and me are alone right?

        You said it yourself pacifier for a billion well then if you are ani religious its a billion against you wow must be lonely which is why you lash out at other peoples beliefs using humor to make your self happy

          #16.3 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 3:20 PM EDT
          Reply

          Great to see the Arab Spring and democracy expanding so peacefully and wonderfully...someone,somewhere,is calling this progress,and i bet its a lib...

            Reply#17 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:37 AM EDT

            Why a lib? are you implying that revolution is the way of a liberal and then vice versa dictatorship is the way of a conservative?

              Reply#18 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:39 AM EDT

              So this is what ALI BABA & THE FORTY THIEVES achieved in Libya? MAGNIFICENT RESULTS.

                Reply#19 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:42 AM EDT

                yes,revolution is the way of an ignorant liberal,and no,dictatorship is not a conservative thing it was around before you or any one else out here,idiot..so much for your argument...

                  Reply#20 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:43 AM EDT

                  except that conservative is keeping the way things are so if there was a dictatorship it would be the conservatives keeping it in control right? you really need to think things through more especially when liberalism and conservativism both weren't around back then and yet there is a huge history of revolution and civil wars.

                    #20.1 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 3:23 PM EDT

                    Disingenuous at best. We are not a democracy, so Democrat doesn't really define itself that way.

                    Consevative can also mean:

                    - cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate.

                    traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness: conservative suit.

                    Think about a conservatorship:

                    - a person who conserves or preserves; preserver; protector.

                    But yu knew that, didn't you?

                      #20.2 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 5:49 PM EDT
                      Reply

                      Arabs are just doing what they've always done, killing anyone that doesn't believe the way they do.

                        Reply#21 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:47 AM EDT

                        Killing trespassers has been around since Adam and Eve shot that arrogant incorrigible Jew trying to build a check point at the front gate of the Garden of Eden, doncha know that Pilgrims?

                          #21.1 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:11 AM EDT
                          Reply

                          Bombings are part of the signs of progress in the arab world,and the liberal mind....when Assads top aides in Syria were eliminated,it was done by a rebel in a suicide bombing...wanna bet the libs applauded?...this is not to justify murder in any way,it is to look at things rationally and totally,and understand that this is a radical muslim problem more than any political one

                          • 1 vote
                          Reply#22 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:00 AM EDT

                          "Islam, the religion of peace. Such nice peaceful folk." --- And CHRISTIANS are supposed to turn the other cheek. NO? But in fact THEY do the SLAPPING FIRST and then expect the other person to turn the other cheek. LOL!

                          • 1 vote
                          Reply#23 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:02 AM EDT

                          Oh my, this Great Satan is a curse. isn't he? The V5.0 Democracy that AmeriKKKa brings to the people of the Middle East and Mid-continent is car bombs, murder and mayhem. Yassar Ahmadinejad, get UR'self a Paki U-Haul nuke (maybe half a dozen) and let's start with Tel Aviv, Haifa and Dimona - That will cool the Jews heels and then bring a few Taliban 'freedom fighters' in from Afghanistan and they will take care of BIG BOY here - I mean, they're 'kicking ass' on the United Snakes (US/NATO) in Afghanistan - why not in Somalia, Yemen and Syria, dah? As for the simpletons posting here with empty heads and deterioated brains - go take a cold shower and go finish your GED before you return to opine - ya hear?'

                          • 1 vote
                          Reply#24 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:05 AM EDT

                          Another advertisement for the most peaceful of religions.....Holy(?) month of Ramadan is will now be referred to as random murder month.

                            Reply#25 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:10 AM EDT

                            This is really funny. Bollywood should make a SITCOM based on this story and used the headline as title of the SICOM.

                              Reply#26 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:24 AM EDT

                              Just like the economy; sounds like another success story obama can take credit for.

                              • 1 vote
                              Reply#27 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:53 AM EDT

                              Glad to see the trolls have their very own article to comment on. Good for you.

                                Reply#28 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 11:05 AM EDT

                                More of that fabulous "peace and love" from the patently demented paramilitary Satanic cult of death, destruction, and hate called "Islam", really . . .

                                Really! :-o

                                • 3 votes
                                Reply#29 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 11:09 AM EDT

                                The Libyan's didn't worry about car bombs when Moammar Gadhafi was in power did they? Oh but we felt it was better to remove this pain in the a*s simply because he was a pain in the a*s. Now they get to spend their day worrying about being blown to bits by people who are vying to fill the power vacuum we created. Mission accomplished people we sent another Middle Eastern Country into a tail spin, and we are busy doing the same in Syria. I don't care much for their way of life, but I also don't think we should be imposing our stupid ideology on others either. We have it pretty good here if you take away the drugs, guns, violence, unemployment, and homelessness. Other than that things aren't so bad are they? Yeah OK....Read this and more at koolaidstand blogspot com

                                • 2 votes
                                Reply#30 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 11:16 AM EDT
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