Rival rallies in the Libyan capital for and against an anti-jihadist renegade ex-general turned violent on Friday, leaving at least one person injured, witnesses and private television said.

The rival groups gathered in central Tripoli despite police efforts to keep them apart and skirmishes broke out, with protesters hurling stones and plastic water bottles at each other.

The head of the Libyan capital's now disbanded Supreme Security Committee survived a car bomb detonated outside his home before dawn on Friday.

Hashem Bashar, who now heads a committee tasked with integrating Tripoli's myriad of former rebel militias into the security forces, told AFP he was sure he was the target of the blast.

The Italian navy on Friday said it had rescued around 2,500 asylum-seekers from 17 boats in the past 24 hours as good weather conditions in the Mediterranean further boost the influx of asylum-seekers trying to reach Europe.

The navy said in a statement that the San Giorgio, an amphibious transport dock ship, had picked up the highest number -- 998 migrants including 214 women and 157 minors.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it was temporarily freezing its operations in Libya to assess the security situation after a Swiss staffer was killed by gunmen.

"We are freezing movement (of personnel) for the time being to analyze the situation so we can adapt our operations," ICRC spokesman David-Pierre Marquet told AFP, stressing there were no plans to permanently halt operations in Libya.

Libya's supreme court is to issue a ruling next week on the legality of Ahmed Miitig's controversial election last month as interim prime minister, a court official said Thursday.

Outgoing premier Abdullah al-Thani announced last week that he would ask for a court ruling on the election before handing over power.

Four U.N. staffers have been roughed up by the security detail at Tripoli airport after being briefly detained for alleged arms smuggling, the U.N. chief of mission in Libya said Thursday.

The unidentified foreigners were "held for questioning by the security brigade... for an hour and a half and roughed up" Wednesday night, Tarek Mitri told a press conference in the capital.

Gunmen killed a Swiss national working in Libya for the International Committee for the Red Cross when they intercepted his car in the city of Sirte on Wednesday, the Red Crescent said.

"The ICRC's head of mission in Misrata was killed today as he was carrying out a visit to Sirte," Red Crescent spokesman Mohamed Mustafa al-Misrati told AFP.

A rogue general, whose repeated deadly assaults on jihadists in Libya's second city Benghazi have earned him threats of reprisal, escaped a suicide bombing Wednesday, one of his commanders said.

But three loyalists of former general and longtime U.S. exile Khalifa Haftar were killed in the attack on a villa outside the eastern city, the commander told Agence France Presse.

Libya's new government announced Monday it had taken office, despite the refusal of Abdullah al-Thani's cabinet to leave power, as violence intensified in the east of the country following the launch of a deadly "anti-terrorist" campaign.

Prime Minister Ahmed Miitig, 42, said in a statement he had convened his ministers for the first time since his disputed election in May, amid an ongoing power struggle in Tripoli. 

Fierce fighting between Islamists and a rogue Libyan general killed at least 18 people in Benghazi on Monday, triggering fears of an all-out war as hospitals urged citizens to donate blood.

Officials at hospitals in the eastern city, the birthplace of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi, said at least 11 soldiers were among the dead and that 81 people were wounded.