Drone strike sparks blaze at Libya’s Zawiya refinery near Tripoli

Firefighters in western Libya fought on Tuesday to extinguish a fire caused by a drone strike on an oil facility, and a car bomb killed a senior military officer in the country’s east in the latest attacks in the chaos-stricken North African nation.

The drone hit a fuel tank at the Zawiya oil refinery, the largest operational refinery in Libya, in the Mediterranean town of Zawiya on Monday, about 47km west of capital, Tripoli, the state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC) said.

The attack ignited a huge blaze at the fuel storage tank that burnt through the night and was still burning on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Civil Defence, a first responders’ agency.

There were no reports of casualties, the health authorities said.

No group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on oil facilities in Zawiya or the car bomb in the eastern city of Benghazi on Monday.

Footage aired by local media showed huge flames and fireballs erupting from the tank, with black and orange smoke rising into the sky as firefighters spray what appears to be foam or water in efforts to extinguish the intense fire.

As they fought the flames, another drone hit close to a key oil tank nearby but did not cause casualties or damage, the NOC said.

The company said the tank, which held 4.5-million litres of fuel when it was hit, collapsed and declared a state of maximum emergency at the facility.

Two drones hit the town’s power plant, with one damaging its firefighting system while the second landed close to the facility’s main fuel storage, local media reported.

Monday’s strikes were the latest in a series of drone attacks on oil infrastructure in Zawiya, which houses critical energy infrastructure including the country’s largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant. The drone strikes come as Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan is set to arrive in Libya for a visit. He is due to visit Tripoli and Benghazi.

At the weekend, the NOC said drone strikes had hit a fuel tank and a desalination plant linked to the oil facilities in Zawiya. It said the tank was damaged.

The attacks come as tensions are rising between the government of western Libya and a warlord who controls the city of Zawiya.

Much of western Libya is ruled by local militias loosely allied to Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah’s government in Tripoli.

Jalel Harchaoui, an analyst affiliated with the Royal United Services Institute in London, said warlord Mohamed Bahroun has been cornered by the government and his forces “are likely to resort to desperate measures”.

Separately, a senior military officer with the forces of powerful commander Khalifa Hifter was killed in a car bomb on Monday evening in the eastern city of Benghazi, authorities said.

Maj-Gen Fawzy al-Mansouri, director of the military intelligence of Hifter’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), was killed when an explosive-laden vehicle exploded into his car in the Sayyida Aisha neighbourhood in Benghazi, the LNA said.

The LNA is allied with one of Libya’s two rival governments, which controls the country’s eastern and southern parts.

The attacks underscore the fragility of security in the oil-rich country. Libya, a largely lawless Mediterranean country, has been plunged into chaos and division after the 2011 uprising-turned-civil war, which toppled and later killed long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Amid the chaos, militias grew in wealth and power, particularly in Tripoli and the western part of the country.

The county has been divided for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Currently, it is governed by Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah’s government in the west and by the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad in the east.

AP