Tripoli (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Three car bombs ripped through the eastern Libyan city of Qubbah on Friday, killing 40 people and wounding 70.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, but parliamentary speaker Aguila Saleh said the bombs appeared to have been in retaliation for Egyptian air strikes on nearby Derna, an Islamist militant hotspot.
On Monday, Egypt launched air strikes against IS targets in Derna, a day after the group released a video showing the execution of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian workers.
Today's bombings struck a petrol station, the local security headquarters and the town council headquarters.
A security official said the car bombs were probably suicide attacks but no more details were immediately available.
With the IS group on the move and Libya in chaos, with two governments and parliaments vying for legitimacy and territory, four years after the regime of Muammar Gaddafi was toppled, the West and neighbouring states are concerned.
The internationally recognised prime minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, is based in Bayda, some 40 km from Qubbah. Parliamentary speaker Aguila Saleh works out of Tobruk, another eastern town home to the House of Representatives, the elected parliament.
The capital Tripoli is held instead by a group called 'Fajr (Dawn) Libya', which forced out the elected government and set up another.
For UN envoy Bernardino Leon, the only cure for Libya's trauma is political.
Claudia Gazzini of the International Crisis Group said a political accord would be "difficult, but not impossible to achieve."
"The international community must stay focused on supporting the dialogue efforts and resist calls to lift the arms embargo," the analyst said.