Benghazi: Maj. Gen. Fawzi al-Mansouri, the head of the military intelligence department for Libya's eastern-based forces led by Khalifa Haftar, was killed Monday in a targeted assassination, said a Libyan security official.

According to Anadolu Agency, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported that an improvised explosive device (IED) was planted under Mansouri's vehicle, which detonated as he was getting into the car outside his home in the al-Sayyida Aisha residential neighborhood in eastern Benghazi. The official described the incident as a 'terrorist attack.'

No official statement has yet been issued regarding the killing. Maj. Gen. Mansouri had been serving as the commander of the Sabha Military Zone since August 3, 2021, and was appointed head of the Military Intelligence Department by Khalifa Haftar on May 20, 2024.

Libya remains divided between two rival governments: the internationally recognized Government of National Unity, headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh and based in Tripoli, which administers western Libya, and a government appointed by the House of Representatives in early 2022, currently headed by Osama Hammad and based in Benghazi, which administers the east and most of the south.

For years, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has been working to broker a political settlement that leads to elections, which many Libyans hope will end the political divisions and armed conflict that have persisted since the 2011 ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.