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IS Claims Responsibility for Suicide Attack in Libya


A man stands outside the damaged headquarters of the national oil company after an attack by gunmen in Tripoli, Libya, Sept. 10, 2018. Officials said security forces of Libya's U.N.-backed government stormed the building after gunmen had earlier gone in,
A man stands outside the damaged headquarters of the national oil company after an attack by gunmen in Tripoli, Libya, Sept. 10, 2018. Officials said security forces of Libya's U.N.-backed government stormed the building after gunmen had earlier gone in,

Islamic State on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on the Tripoli headquarters of the Libyan state oil company that occurred the day before, according to SITE, a U.S.-based intelligence group that monitors extremists.

Two staffers at the National Oil Corporation were killed and 10 were wounded. The three attackers were also killed.

A statement from Amaq, the IS news agency, said it targeted the "economic interests of the pro-Crusader governments of the tyrants of Libya."

The U.N. mission in Libya condemned what it called a "cowardly terrorist attack."

Libya has been in nonstop political and social turmoil since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled and killed in 2011.

A rival government is jockeying for power with a U.N.-installed administration in Tripoli, which is struggling to assert its authority across the country.

Extremists, including Islamic State militants, claim to have a number of so-called "sleeper cells" inside Libya.

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