By Muetaz Wannes
TRIPOLI, Libya (AA) – Eastern Libyan forces said Monday that three soldiers were killed and others injured in an attack in the country’s south near the border with Niger.
In a statement, East Libya-based General Command said soldiers were also captured in the attack that targeted the Al-Toum border crossing. It said gunmen also attacked the Wadi Bougrara and Salvador points near the border with Niger.
The statement said the attack was carried out by “criminal gangs are involved in smuggling operations,” adding that the targeted sites “were fully re-secured” with security forces sweeping the area to hunt the attackers “who apparently fled toward Niger.”
An armed group calling itself the “Revolutionaries of the South” earlier claimed to have seized control of the Al-Toum border crossing between Libya and Niger.
A gunman appeared in a video shared on social media claiming that the attack aimed at “correcting the course of the Feb. 17 Revolution,” in reference to the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Moammar Gaddafi.
Libya remains divided between two rival administrations: one led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh in Tripoli, which controls the west of the country, and another appointed by the House of Representatives (parliament) in early 2022, led by Osama Hammad and based in Benghazi, which governs the east and much of the south.
*Writing by Rania Abushamala in Istanbul.