Militiamen in Tripoli, Libya
Militiamen in Tripoli, LibyaReuters

Gunmen killed Libya’s Deputy Industry Minister as he drove home from shopping in the coastal city of Sirte late on Saturday, in an attack security officials blamed on hard-line terrorists.

Libya still suffers from widespread violence and targeted killings more than two years after the civil war ousted Muammar Qaddafi. According to Arab News, terrorists, militia gunmen and former rebels often resort to force to impose demands on the fragile government.

The minister, Hassan Al-Drowi, was shot several times, said a senior security official said who asked not to be identified.

“They opened fire from another car while he was driving, he was shot multiple times,” the official said. “Later, they found explosives attached to his car. The theory is, the bomb failed, so they shot him instead.”

The official blamed terrorists who have been trying to extend their influence in Sirte, which has been more stable recently than Tripoli, about 460 km to the west, or the city of Benghazi in the east.

Sirte was the last bastion of Qaddafi loyalists in the war, and Qadafi was brutally killed there on October 20, 2011.

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s government has been weakened by political infighting and its armed forces are still in their formative stage, struggling to wrest control back from areas where militias are still dominant.

The country’s new constitution is still unfinished, and militias who once helped fight Qaddafi have refused to disarm, claiming the central government is too weak to provide security and stability.