BENGHAZI: A suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint into the Libyan town of Zella on Sunday, killing himself but causing no other casualties, a spokesman for the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls that area, said.

Libya has endured a decade of violence and chaos since the 2011 uprising against Muammar Qaddafi, but there have been only sporadic attacks by militant groups in recent years, mostly in remote desert areas.

Zella is a small oasis town in the desert south of Sirte located near an oilfield of the same name.

LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari said the attacks bore the hallmark of Daesh.

In a separate development, authorities said mains water was being restored to western Libya after a week-long cut prompted by sabotage threats from loyalists of a jailed Qaddafi-era official.

“The wells and pumps are being switched back on to gradually restore supply,” the authority said on its Facebook page on Saturday. “The crisis is over.”

The announcement brought welcome relief to Libyans forced to cope without water as a summer heat wave gripped North Africa.

The water authority is responsible for a huge network of pipelines, dubbed the Great Man-Made River, which was one of the major projects of Qaddafi during his four decades in power.

It brings water from underground aquifers deep in the Sahara desert to settlements on the Mediterranean coast.

Last weekend, the water authority shut down the pipeline network in a bid to contain any damage, after loyalists of Qaddafi’s brother-in-law Abdullah Al-Senussi threatened to sabotage it unless he were released.

Senussi was sentenced to death in 2015 for his role in the attempted suppression of the 2011 uprising that toppled Qaddafi.

He remains in prison in Tripoli.

Reuters