Unknown gunmen have kidnapped and killed a senior Libyan air force officer in the eastern city of Benghazia, a security official says.

"Unidentified assailants aboard a pick-up truck in military uniforms abducted a pilot, Colonel Aguila Milud al-Obeidi, while he was at a friend's house in the Al-Guarsha district before killing him," Colonel Mohammed al-Hijazi said on Friday.

"A friend of Obeidi had informed the authorities of the abduction and special forces were dispatched to the scene where they found he had been killed with several gunshot wounds," he added.


On July 15, gunmen in a vehicle gunned down a commander with the investigation and rescue brigade of the Libyan air force in Derna.

Colonel Fethi Ali al-Amami was targeted by armed men in a vehicle as he opened his boutique in the eastern port city.

On July 2, a group of armed men attacked Libya’s Interior Ministry in the capital, Tripoli, forcing the closure of the building. A security official said that the armed men from the western city of Zintan were responsible for the attack.

In June, gunmen killed appeal court judge Mohammed Ibrahim Houidi, the president of the criminal division, in Derna.

Over the past months, eastern Libya has been hit by bombings and assassinations targeting judges, military and police officers who worked under ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

In February 2011, Libyans rose up against Gaddafi’s four-decade rule and deposed him in August 2011. He was slain in his hometown of Sirte on October 20 of the same year.