Rockets hit main eastern Libya airport: reports

Rockets were fired at eastern Libya's Labraq airport on Saturday, an airport source told Reuters.

Labraq has been used as eastern Libya’s main aerial hub since last year, when fighting engulfed Benghazi airport.

No one has taken responsibility for the attack as yet, but the airport is controlled by the Tobruk-based parliament and its allied forces and militias.

Opposing Libya Dawn forces, allied with the rival parliament in Tripoli, have been trying to wrestle control of Tobruk’s oil resources for months. Tobruk has also been on the offensive, bombing Tripoli and other Libya Dawn-held positions in western Libya.

Late last year, their forces took aim at Tripoli’s second largest airport Mitiga. The capitals largest, Tripoli International, was badly damaged in August when Libya Dawn forces managed to seize the airport from Tobruk-allied militias.

The attack on Labraq comes a day after militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State killed more than 40 people in a suicide car bombings in Qubbah, a town some 50 km away.

Labraq has been acting as the main launch pad for military strikes against IS positions, which have been stepped up in recent days, military source told Reuters.

On Monday, Egypt – which is an outspoken supporter of the Tobruk government - also bombed IS positions in Libya after a video emerged of IS militants executing 21 Egyptian Christians on a beach in the coastal city of Derna.