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A car laden with explosives killed two people, as well as the driver, and wounded around 20 Friday in Libya's second biggest city, Benghazi, medics and military officials said, Reuters reported.

The car exploded as it was being driven towards an army tank base and ammunitions store, military officials told a Reuters reporter at the scene. They said the vehicle had apparently exploded earlier than intended as it had not yet reached the base. A man and a child were killed.

"It was a suicide bomber," said Fadel al-Hassi, a senior army special forces commander.

The explosion happened in the Lithi neighborhood where pro-government forces have been fighting Islamist groups for months. On Thursday, the two sides battled over control of the port district.

The fighting in the eastern city mirrors a wider struggle across the oil-producing North African state where two governments and parliaments, allied to rival armed groups, are vying for control four years after Moammar Gaddafi fell to an armed uprising.

Backed by forces led by General Khalifa Haftar, army special forces in mid-October launched an offensive against Islamists in Benghazi, expelling them from the airport area and from several camps the army had lost during the summer.