Libya says 11 beheaded by IS at checkpoint

Nearly a dozen people have been beheaded in an Islamic State attack at a Libyan checkpoint.

The spokesman of Libya's self-styled national army in the east says Islamic State militants beheaded 11 people in an attack on a checkpoint.

Brigadier General Ahmed al-Mosmari said two of those killed on Wednesday were civilians, while the rest were soldiers.

The attack took place in the central district of al-Jufra, some 300 kilometres south of the coastal city of Sirte, which IS held until it was expelled late last year by Libyan forces.

Libya sank into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

It remains split between rival parliaments and governments in the east and west, each backed by a set of militias, tribes and political factions