Italy Treating Libyan Police Victims of IS Bomb
Italy said Tuesday it was treating 15 Libyan police officers injured in a January 7 truck bombing that has been claimed by the Islamic State group.
The attack on a police training center in Zliten, a coastal city about 170 kilometers (100 miles) east of Tripoli, killed 50 people and injured over a hundred.
Italy offered medical help for 15 of the most seriously injured in line with a request from Prime Minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj, the foreign ministry in Rome said.
The injured men were collected by an Italian airforce transporter on Monday and taken to Celio military hospital in central Rome.
Two of the men were immediately admitted to an intensive care unit.
Last week's bombing was the deadliest attack in Libya since the 2011 uprising in which rebels backed by the Western powers ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
It intensified growing concern over IS's presence in the oil-rich North African state and cast a shadow over international efforts to stabilize the conflict-torn country through the creation of a new, unified administration headed by businessman al-Sarraj.
Libya has had rival administrations since August 2014, when an Islamist-backed militia overran Tripoli and forced the internationally recognized government to relocate to the east of the country.
Some members of both parliaments signed a December accord which envisages al-Sarraj forming a national unity government by the end of this month.
But many Libya experts are skeptical about the prospects of the new government becoming a stable administration after a majority of both assemblies snubbed the negotiations that led to its formation.
Italy has offered to lead an international peace process in the event of the rival factions in Libya ceasing hostilities.
As well as allowing IS to establish a presence in the country, the chaos in Libya has been blamed for handing people smugglers a free hand to organize clandestine boat trips which have carried more than 320,000 migrants to Italy in the last two years.
