Benghazi: Militants in Libya pose a “direct threat” to Europe, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in Madrid on Saturday.
“I would like to cite the question of Libya and the direct threat to our security of the creation - under our eyes and not far from our borders - of a new haven for the jihadi terrorist,” Valls told a gathering of social democrats in Madrid, according to a transcript of his speech. In Benghazi, attackers fired rockets at eastern Libya’s Labraq airport on Saturday, an airport source said, targeting one of the oil producer’s few functioning air hubs in a country gripped by violence.
Labraq has become the main gateway into eastern Libya since Benghazi airport stopped working in May due to fighting.
The North African nation has descended into chaos with two governments and parliaments vying for control, while Islamist militants exploit a power vacuum four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.
The airport attack came a day after militants claiming loyalty to Daesh killed more than 40 people in suicide car bombings in Qubbah, a town some 50 km away.
Labraq is located near Bayda, the seat of internationally recognised Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni since he had to flee the capital Tripoli when it was taken over by an armed group in August which set up a rival government and parliament.
Helicopters took off from Labraq on Friday hours after the suicide bombings to attack militant targets in Derna, according to a military source.
The militants claiming responsibility for the Qubbah bombings had said in a statement they had acted in revenge for Egyptian air strikes on Daesh targets in Derna on Monday, a day after the group released a video showing the execution of Egyptian Copts.
