Reports from Libya's eastern city of Benghazi indicate that the commander of Libyan ground forces, General Khalifa Hafter was lucky to escape unhurt in an assassination attempt on Sunday.

Gen. Hafter, who has been assigned by the interim government to form a national army, was travelling in a convoy that came under fire from unknown gunmen close to the country's second largest city, Benghazi

The attack came less than 24 hours after Col. Suleiman Buzraidah Benghazi was killed while on his way to a mosque in Benghazi. Buzraidah is a former military intelligence chief in the Gaddafi regime, who joined the rebels that eventually ousted the former Libyan dictator during last year's conflict.

It is uncertain whether there are any connections between the attack on General Hafter and the killing of Buzraidah in a region of that has witnessed a surge in assassination attempts against former military and security officials.

Abdel-Basit Haroun, a Benghazi militia commander, was reported saying that over the past month alone 13 people who had been close to the former regime have been killed

Also in Benghazi, a bomb placed in the basement of the city's most popular hotel with the government authorities and foreign business community, the Tibesti, was defused before it could explode.