Libya army colonel escapes 'assassination bid'

A colonel in the restive Libyan city of Benghazi escaped a bomb attack on Tuesday after discovering the device placed under his car outside his home, a security official said. The incident comes a day after a TV journalist survived an attack in Benghazi after coming under a hail of bullets. Colonel Jelal al-Arafi discovered the device and immediately ran away from the vehicle when the bomb exploded, security spokesman Colonel Abdallah al-Zayedi said. "He was injured in the foot and underwent surgery at a hospital in Benghazi," Zayedi said, adding that this was an "attempted assassination." Cradle of the 2011 uprising that ousted long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Benghazi has been rocked by a series of killings of soldiers and police who served under the former regime. In recent days, journalists have also come under attack. On Monday, Khadija al-Ammami, director of Libya Al-Ahrar television's Benghazi office, was shot at several times when she was in her car on the way to her office but miraculously survived, a colleague said. She later received telephone threats that she would be killed next time. That attack came three days after a Libyan doctor who hosted a television programme on human development was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Benghazi, Libya's second city. Azzedine Koussad, a presenter for Libya Al-Hurra television, was hit by several rounds as he sat in his parked car. Libya's new authorities have struggled to re-establish order and form a professional army since Kadhafi's overthrow and their efforts to woo militiamen to join the security forces have been scorned.