Eight soldiers killed in attack on Haftar camp in Libya claimed by Islamic State

The Islamic State group (IS) has claimed responsibility for an attack on Saturday on a training camp belonging to the eastern Libyan forces of Khalifa Haftar in the southern city of Sebha in which eight soldiers were killed

Hamed al-Khaiyali, the head of the local municipality, told the Reuters news agency one soldier had been beheaded, the others "slaughtered" or shot.

IS later claimed responsibility for the attack, adding it had freed militants from jails.

A source in Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) also blamed IS and Chadian fighters for the attack, the latter a term used by the LNA for tribesmen opposing Haftar.

Sebha - like much of the south and its oil fields - is controlled by the LNA, but the force has moved troops north for a month-long offensive on the capital Tripoli, held by the internationally recognised government.

The campaign has not breached the southern defences of the capital.

The LNA faced strong opposition from the Tebu ethnic group during its campaign in the south at the start of the year.

Islamic State militants are also active in southern Libya, where it has staged several hit-and-run attacks in recent months.

It retreated to the south after losing its stronghold in the central city of Sirte in December 2016.

At least 392 people have been killed and 1,936 wounded since Haftar launched an offensive against the Libyan capital last month, the UN's World Health Organisation said on Friday. 

More than 50,000 have meanwhile been displaced as a direct result "of the intensifying armed conflict in Tripoli," according to another UN body, the Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.