1ST LEAD Senior Libyan commander killed in campaign against insurgents By Badr Mohammed, dpa

Benghazi, Libya (dpa) - A senior commander aligned with Libya‘s military strongman Khalifa Haftar was killed Sunday during a long-running campaign to dislodge Islamist insurgents from the eastern city of Benghazi, a military official said.Brigadier Fadl al-Hasi was killed in a landmine explosion in Benghazi‘s neighbourhood of al-Sabri, regarded as the last stronghold of rival Islamist militias, military spokesman Meloud al-Zawi added.Al-Hasi was a prominent commander in elite forces of Haftar‘s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA).LNA is loyal to an administration based in Libya‘s far eastern city of Tobruk.In mid-2014 Haftar launched a major offensive codenamed "Operation Dignity" that he said was aimed at driving radical Islamists from Benghazi.Benghazi was the birthplace of a 2011 armed revolt that toppled Libya‘s longtime autocrat Moamer Gaddafi.In recent months, Haftar has sought to take the campaign beyond Benghazi.Warplanes aligned with him early Sunday carried out a series of strikes against rival militias in retaliation for a deadly attack on Haftar‘s forces, military reports said.The strikes targeted positions of "terrorist militias" in the southern town of al-Jafra, LNA said on its Facebook page."Ten air raids were unleashed on and around the al-Jafra airbase, inflicting big casualties and material damage on terrorists," it added."We will continue our air operations until the south and the entire country is liberated from extremist and terrorist groups," al-Sherif al-Awami, a senior officer in the LNA air force command, said without providing further details.The bombing targeted militias believed to have been involved in an attack on Thursday at an airbase manned by pro-Haftar forces.Some 141 people were killed in Thursday‘s attack at the Brake al-Shati base in southern Libya, according to LNA estimates.Libya is divided between three rival governments - two in Tripoli and one in Tobruk.Thursday‘s attack raised fears of further violence in the country, which has descended into chaos since Gaddafi‘s toppling.