Islamic State militants have killed five journalists working for a Libyan TV station in the eastern part of the country, an army commander said.

The reporters had been missing since August, when they left the eastern city Tobruk to travel to Benghazi. Their route took them through Derna, a militant Islamist hotspot.

Faraj al-Barassi, a district army commander in eastern Libya, said militants loyal to Islamic State were responsible for the killing of the journalists, whose bodies were found outside the eastern city of Bayda.

No further details were immediately available.

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