Unidentified gunmen fatally wounded Libya’s military police force commander as he left his house in the eastern city of Benghazi to attend Friday prayers, a security source said yesterday.

“Several shots hit Ahmed al-Barghathi. He was brought to hospital but later died there,” the source said.

The attack is the latest blow to a weak Libyan government that is struggling to assert control over militias and radical Islamists two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

Several army officers have been assassinated in Benghazi, where the US ambassador was killed during an Islamist assault on a US diplomatic mission a year ago. The shooting of Barghathi, who was on vacation in the city, is the highest profile attack there for weeks.

Some former rebel groups now in theory help the government maintain security, but are themselves often a source of violence. In fact, when gunmen snatched Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from his Tripoli hotel last week, it was a rival armed militia he thanked for his rescue hours later.

Even for Libyans accustomed to their democracy’s unruly beginnings, the drama at the Corinthia Hotel was a startling reminder of the power former fighters wield two years after they ousted Muammar Gaddafi, and the dangers of their rivalry.

Police and troops from Libya’s nascent army were at the scene, but the former militiamen showed they are the arbiters in a struggle between rival tribal and Islamist leaders over the post-revolution spoils of the North African oil producer.

Between them, they have edged Libya close to a new war that threatens the democratic gains of the Nato-backed revolt.

“We want to build a state with an army, police and institutions, but there are some people who want to obstruct this,” Zeidan, still in his pyjamas, told reporters after his release, referring to critics in Parliament who had been planning a vote of no confidence, accusing him of failing on security.