World Bulletin / News Desk

A ten-year-old girl was killed and three civilians were injured on Friday after two mortar shells hit a residential area in eastern Libya's Benghazi city, a medical source has said.

The source, requesting anonymity, told The Anadolu Agency, that Benghazi's Al-Galal hospital received the body of the young girl as well as three injured residents after two shells struck residential buildings in Benghazi's Abu Hadima district in the early hours of Friday.

He said that the three injured - a woman and her daughter who hail from the slain girl's family as well as a young man - have undergone shrapnel removal surgeries.

It’s yet unclear who fired the shells at the residential neighborhood, but the city has been witnessing sporadic clashes between army troops and Islamist militias.

Libya has been dogged by political instability since strongman Muammar Gaddafi's ouster and death in 2011.

In the years since, rival militias have frequently clashed in Libya's main cities, including Tripoli and Benghazi.

The UN recently sponsored a dialogue initiative in an effort to reconcile the fractious North African country's warring camps.