(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Islamic State group on Sunday declared "war" on the powerful Fajr Libya militia alliance that controls Tripoli and claimed a suicide bombing that killed five of its fighters.
The dawn blast in northwest Libya is the latest in a series of attacks by IS in the politically divided North African country, where the jihadists have exploited chaos to gain a growing foothold.
"A car suicide bomber blew himself up near a checkpoint at an entrance of Dafniya," between the town of Zliten and Libya's third city Misrata, said a spokesman for Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn).
The attack killed five fighters and wounded seven others, he added.
The LANA news agency of the militia-backed Tripoli administration gave a similar account of the attack, and also reported that five were dead.
IS claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted on Twitter, identifying the suicide bomber as a Tunisian named Abu Wahib al-Tunsi.
The jihadist group also warned Fajr Libya to be ready for "war".
"The apostates of Fajr Libya... must know that a war is coming to cleanse the land of their filth unless they repent and go back to their true religion," said the extremist group.
Libya plunged into chaos after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with battle-hardened former rebels armed with heavy weapons carving out their own fiefdoms.
Fajr Libya, an alliance of armed groups including Islamists opposed to the extremist religious views of IS, seized power in Tripoli last year.
It installed a new government and parliament in the capital, prompting the administration recognised by the international community to flee to the east of the country.
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