Suicide bomber hits field hospital near Libya's Sirte

A suicide bomber has killed three people at a field hospital for forces fighting Islamic State in the Libyan coastal stronghold of Sirte on Sunday.

A security source said medical staff have appealed for help in treating the wounded.

The bomber also wounded seven others and caused extensive damage to the hospital, about 50km from the front line.

The security source said two other attempted suicide bombings just outside the center of Sirte did not cause casualties.

Officials at the hospital have for long complained that one of the biggest challenges they face is the problem of transporting the critically wounded to Turkey.

Head of the committee for the wounded, Malek Al Qulaib said the wounded in the Misrata hospital are in a bad shape adding that the hospital care room are at full capacity.

“We have a number of critical cases that need to be treated abroad, about 100 or so wounded. We have managed to fly out about 30 or 40 of them and the rest need to be evacuated as soon as possible because time is not on their side,” he said.

He noted that the hospital’s capabilities are very weak relative to the number of cases and the availability of medicines and equipment.

“We’re not asking much of the government, just to pay attention to us, to care for the wounded and the hospitals. The hospital has limited capabilities. They are doing the best they can with what they have but they have limited and weak capabilities,” said a wounded soldier, Mohammed Ali Awad.

Brigades with the UN-backed government of national accord have made rapid advances over the past month.

This week, they had entered Sirte, engaging Islamic State militants in street battles keeping up air strikes against them.