AL QUBBA , Libya, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- At least 41 people died Friday after car bombs, believed to be placed by Islamic State militants, exploded at a gas station in the city of Al Qubba, Libya.
A spokesman for Libya's Health Ministry, who announced the death toll and added many more were injured, characterized the incident as a reprisal for Egyptian airstrikes on IS targets in Libya, earlier this week. The airstrikes were a reaction to the beheadings of 20 Egyptian Christians and one Ghanaian Christian by IS.
"We don't know the identity of the attackers yet, but we assume that they are Islamic State from Derna and they are responding to the Egyptian airstrike from Derna several days ago," said Dr. Rida Alokilly of the Health Ministry of the internationally-recognized government in Tobruk, one of two governments claiming to lead the country.
Derna was a site of Egyptian airstrikes, and about 25 miles east of Al Qubba, a seaside city of 25,000.
Three separate explosions occurred at the gas station, as well as blasts at the local security headquarters and at the home of Agila Saleh, leader of the Tobruk government's House of Representatives, Saleh said.
IS has recently made inroads in Libya, a country lacking a functioning government and other reliable institutions since the 2011 fall of the Ghadafi regime. Egypt, Libya's eastern neighbor, has called for international intervention to subdue militant gangs controlling sections of Libya.
