An American teacher in Benghazi, Libya out for a jog was shot and killed on Thursday, according to Libyan security officials. Ronnie Smith had been teaching chemistry at an international school in the city for a year-and-a-half and was about to return to the US for the holidays, NBC News reports.
The 33-year-old was jogging in an upscale neighborhood when a witness says he was attacked by gunmen in a black jeep, the New York Times reports. Libyan security officials say the motive for the attack is still unknown, but that the attack is part of a series of assassinations that have taken place in the city. Three Libyan soldiers were also killed on Thursday, two were shot and killed and the third died in a car bomb explosion, according to Agence France Presse. The BBC reports that Smith was one of only a few foreign citizens living in Benghazi as the security situation in the city continues to deteriorate. In September 2012, US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the US consulate in the city.
