BENGHAZI, Libya — A car bombing on a busy street in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi early Friday killed at least seven people, including a girl, and wounded 20, a security official said.
The blast, the latest to rock Libya’s second-largest city, took place on a commercial street full of people behind the city’s largest hotel, Tibesti, said Capt. Tarek Alkharraz, spokesman for the military and police forces in Benghazi.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The U.S. Embassy in Libya condemned the attack on Twitter, offering condolences to the victims’ families and saying: “We stand with all Libyans in the fight against terrorism in their nation.”
Later, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya also decried the attack, saying “there is no justification whatsoever for such attacks, which may amount to war crimes.” Libya’s U.N.-backed government also condemned the bombing.
Benghazi is under the control of the self-styled Libyan National Army led by Marshal Khalifa Hifter, whose forces and supporters control the east of the country.
Last year, Hifter announced that Benghazi had been “liberated,” but the city remains a trouble spot, and bombings and attacks are common.
Libya is now split between rival governments in the east and west, each backed by an array of militias. Hifter is at odds with the U.N.-backed government based in the capital, Tripoli.