IS attacks Iranian envoy's residence Tripoli airport

(MENAFN- Arab News) CAIRO: Militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State said they were behind attacks on the residence of the Iranian ambassador in Tripoli and the eastern Labraq airport a group statement on Twitter said on Sunday.

Two bombs struck the empty residence of the Iranian ambassador in the Libyan capital on Sunday but nobody was hurt.

The attack was the latest to target a diplomatic mission in Tripoli where most embassies have been shut since summer 2014 as militias battled for control of the city.

One bomb exploded outside the security gate and a second was lobbed into the grounds of the residence a spokesman for security services in Tripoli Issam AlNaass told AFP.

Another security source said no one was hurt as 'the building was empty and the guard was not at his post at the time of the attack.'

After weeks of bloody fighting in Tripoli that triggered an exodus of foreign residents and prompted most embassies to close the city was seized in August by the Fajr Libya militia alliance.

The Iranian ambassador's residence is in an area of Tripoli where several diplomatic missions are located.

Witnesses said windows at the nearby Ukrainian Embassy were shattered by the impact of the blasts.

IS extremists have been gaining ground in Libya feeding on chaos that has engulfed the country since dictator Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and killed in a 2011 NATObacked uprising.

The country is awash with weapons and has two rival governments and two rival parliaments with authorities unable to rein in powerful militias battling for power and to control the nation's oil wealth.