At least five Libyans soldiers were killed today in clashes with gunmen in the restive eastern city of Benghazi, military sources and medics said.
The early morning clashes broke out when armed men stormed Benghazi police headquarters, prompting a unit of special forces to intervene to push them out, an officer said on condition of anonymity.
At least five soldiers were killed and 11 others wounded as fighting broke out in several parts of the city, medics and the military source said.
The wounded were hit by gunfire, the medical source said.
A security source said the gunmen were trying to seize a vehicle packed with weapons and ammunition that the police had captured.
Today's violence comes just days after a car bomb targeted a special forces barracks in Benghazi, killing two soldiers and wounding three.
Benghazi was the cradle of the 2011 uprising that ended Moamer Kadhafi's four-decade rule and has since been plagued by violence that has killed dozens of members of the security forces, judges and foreigners.
The government has been struggling to consolidate control in the vast and mostly desert country, which is effectively ruled by a patchwork of local militias and awash with heavy weapons looted from Kadhafi's arsenals.
