Gunmen kill air force officer in Libya's Benghazi: security

Gunmen have abducted and killed a senior Libyan air force officer in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the country's 2011 armed uprising, a security official said on Friday.

"Unidentified assailants aboard a pick-up truck in military uniforms abducted a pilot, Colonel Aguila Milud al-Obeidi, while he was at a friend's house in the Al-Guarsha district before killing him," Colonel Mohammed al-Hijazi told AFP.

"A friend of Obeidi had informed the authorities of the abduction and special forces were dispatched to the scene where they found he had been killed with several gunshot wounds."

Obeidi had been returning from the city of Beidha, east of Benghazi, after travelling to offer condolences to the family of his slain colleague, Ali Fethi al-Amami, who was killed on Monday in the city of Derna.

Eastern Libya, birthplace of the 2011 uprising that toppled Moamer Kadhafi, has in recent months been hit by a series of bombings and assassinations targeting judges, military and police officers who worked under the ousted regime.

Attacks which are usually blamed on radical Islamists have also been carried out against Western interests including a June 5 assassination attempt against Jean Dufriche, the honorary consul of France in Benghazi.