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| Africa North |
| Explosive disposal expert dies while defusing Benghazi cigarette kiosk bomb |
| 2014-01-18 |
| [Libya Herald] An explosives disposal expert was killed in Benghazi today and three of his colleagues seriously maimed when a bomb which they were defusing blew up. The device had been left in a bag at a cigarette kiosk in the city's Kish district. Colonel Rajab Elabbar is said to have been an experienced disposal expert. However the blast, at about 4pm, was so powerful that his body is said to have been blown to pieces. His three colleagues have been named as Farid Al-Saaiti, Ali Al-Shweidi and Fathi Al-Houderi. There have been several violent attacks on cigarette kiosks over the past year, mainly in Benghazi and Derna, some being blown up, others burned down. Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... , who view smoking as haram, are widely seen as being behind the attacks. There have been a number of fatwas against cigarette and shisha smoking across the Moslem world on the basis that it is harmful to health. The Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadek Al-Ghariani, has also spoken against it but has not made any formal pronouncement. Seven weeks ago, a cigarette stall was blown up in Benghazi's Zawiya district (formally known as Al-Fatah). Again, the device, said to consist of about 5 kilos of explosive, was left in a bag. On that occasion there were no casualties, the kaboom having happened in the middle of the night. |
| Posted by:Fred |