Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the southern Libyan city of Sabha on Sunday that killed two police officers and injured five others, according to the Nasir news agency, an instrument of the jihadist organization.

According to the IS, a member of the organization, named as Mohamed El Muhajir, carried out the attack with a car trapped with explosives. The capital of the southern Libyan province of Fezan, Sabha is controlled by the Libyan National Army (LNA) of General Khalifa Haftar, the powerful man of eastern Libya. The city has been repeatedly turned into a theater of jihadist attacks in recent years.

Libya plunged into chaos after uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. The major political crisis -with rival governments in the east and west of the country- combined with the disintegration of security mechanisms, favored the advent in the North African country of jihadist organizations such as the Islamic State (IS).

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After losing its strongholds around the cities of Sirte (north and center) and Derna (east) in 2018, the IS weakened and its members withdrew to the desert, or mingled with the population on the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean.

The attack came as a UN-backed political process led to the formation in March of a transitional government tasked with reunifying the country and preparing for double, parliamentary and presidential elections in December.