AKIPRESS.COM - Seven people were killed and 15 wounded when heavy clashes broke out on Monday between the Libyan army and Islamist militants in the eastern city of Benghazi, medical sources said.

The Ansar al-Sharia militant group attacked an army camp, triggering fighting in several parts of the port city, residents there said. Forces of a renegade general fighting Islamists later joined the battle, using combat helicopters, they said, Reuters reported.

Among the seven dead were five soldiers, a hospital doctor said.

(Reporting by Aymaan al-Warfalli and Feras Bosalum; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Hugh Lawson)