TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) Gunmen killed the head of the regional military police in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi as he was headed to a mosque to attend Friday prayers. a security official said.
Libya has been in turmoil since the end of an eight-month civil war that ousted and killed longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Most recently, Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan was briefly kidnapped by gunmen in Tripoli.
Benghazi, Libya's second-largest that was the center of the 2011 revolt against Ghadafi, has seen frequent violence in the past year, including killings of security officials and a string of attacks on foreign missions that have driven most of diplomats out of the city.
In Friday's incident, masked gunmen fired from a car at Col. Ahmed Mostafa el-Barghathy at his house in the eastern city, fatally wounding him in the chest and head, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give information to the media.
El-Barghathy served in Libyan army during the Ghadafi's reign. He was one of the first army officers who took up arms against the dictator in the 2011 uprising.
