Gunmen attack military air base in southern Libya, killing 2 soldiers

TRIPOLI, Libya – A Libyan military spokesman says more than 150 gunmen have attacked an air base in the country's southern desert, killing two government troops.

Saad al-Orfi says the attack early Saturday targeted a military air base about 45 kilometers (30 miles) north of the city of Sabha. He says the assailants were heavily armed and clashed with government forces stationed at the base.

A colonel and a soldier were killed in the fighting, and two more troops were also wounded.

Al-Orfi identified the assailants as Libyan but said an investigation is underway to determine who they were.

Two years after the country's civil war, Libya's weak central government is still grappling with powerful militias as it struggles to create a new police and army.