ISIS rocket attack kills 5 militiamen in Libya's Sirte
Militants with ISIS killed five Islamist-backed militia fighters in an attack on a checkpoint Wednesday in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, a local official said, AFP reported.
The militia fighters are part of the so-called Brigade 166 tasked by the Islamist-backed Tripoli government with securing Sirte.
They have engaged in sporadic fighting with ISIS jihadis around the city, the home town of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi, whose regime was toppled in a 2011 NATO-backed revolt.
"ISIS jihadists attacked a checkpoint 15 kilometers (nine miles) west of Sirte, killing five members of Brigade 166 belonging to the Libya Dawn group and tasked with protecting the city," brigade spokesman Khaled Abou Jizya said.
"Fierce clashes erupted in the early morning and the ISIS fighters were repelled," Abou Jizya added.
In an audio message posted online ISIS meanwhile claimed responsibility for a double suicide car bombing that killed at least seven soldiers in Libya's second city of Benghazi Tuesday.