Fresh Benghazi militia clashes kill three soldiers

Three soldiers have been killed while a further three were injured in fresh clashes between the Libyan army and an armed militia group in the country's east.

Security forces said that fighting erupted when members of an armed group tried to enter Benghazi from the east. However, the allegiances of the group are not yet known.

A local hospital spokesperson confirmed that three soldiers were killed while three troops were hospitalised.

This is the second attack of the day after earlier witnesses said gunmen shot a number of bullets on two unsuspecting soldiers as they got into a car after leaving a café. The attack saw the militia kill one of the hospital with witnesses stating that the second soldier escaped unharmed.

Thursday's violence comes on the final day of a three-day Benghazi strike in protest over militias after a shootout on Monday between an armed group and the army left seven people dead and 50 wounded.

The city council had declared the strike after an army patrol came under attack near the headquarters of Ansar al-Sharia, a jihadist group blamed for the 2012 attack on a US mission in which the ambassador and three other Americans were killed.

The Wednesday attack saw three soldiers shot dead in the city. The bodies of two more were found in the nearby town of Derna, officials said.

Libya has seen mounting unrest since the toppling of long-time ruler Mouammar Gaddafi in 2011 by rebel groups backed by NATO forces. Many of these rebel brigade have since been transformed into militias that defy the central government.