Four children were killed in rocket attack on an area of the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi where Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for a mortar attack, officials said on Wednesday.

The children were killed on Tuesday when a rocket hit their neighborhood, near an area where army forces and Islamist brigades have been fighting, Libya's official government said in a statement.

Militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State said on Twitter they had fired mortar rockets into the district where the children were killed. They posted pictures purportedly showing their fighters firing mortars, without mentioning the children.

(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli and Feras Bosalum; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Larry King)

Reuters