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Libya: A Blast On Police Station Causes Damage Near The Foreign Ministry

| Mar 12, 2015 09:39 AM EDT

Civilians and security personnel stand at the scene of an explosion at a police station in the Libyan capital Tripoli March 12, 2015.

Reuters reported on Thursday that there was a big blast that went off in front of a police station in central Tripoli, the capital of Libya. The blast caused damage to the building which is close to the office of the Foreign Ministry. Several vehicles near the area also suffered damages claimed by a witness and other local media.

The cause of an early morning blast was not immediately known, but a local Libyan news website said that the blast could have been from a car bomb. Libyan authorities, however, did not issue an official press release as of this press time, according to Yahoo News. Also, there is no person or group that claimed responsibility for the blast.

Tripoli, the capital city of Libya is under the control of Libyan Dawn, an armed group that seized the city last August and declared themselves as the legal authority and the government of Libya.

Since the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the country was in constant internal armed conflict between several armed groups. The Libyan internationally recognized government is operating on the east, which is the country's major oil-producing area.

In recent months, several foreign missions operating in Tripoli were attacked with bombs as reported by News 24 Kenya. Foreign governments mostly from Western and Arab nations have evacuated their embassies and left Tripoli after heavy fighting between the rival armed groups.

Lately, a local armed group pledges allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria attacked several government facilities and oil fields, including kidnapping and bombing, however, the Libyan authorities put blame on Gaddafi loyalists.

There were no reported death or injuries to the said blast. No government officials could be reached as of the press time to be interviewed or to give an unofficial pronouncement. Foreign media reporters in Tripoli were the main source of the blast stories.

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