Libya's Ministry of Oil and Gas said on its website:
“It is a disaster threatening the lives of thousands of people. The fire smoke covers the city’s residential area in Ras Lanuf.”Elharari noted that the wind was strong enough that the fires could spread. The total capacity of the tanks at the site is 6.2 million barrels, four times Libya's total daily production. International help is being sought to help put out the fires. Elharari said that 850,000 barrels of oil were lost because of the fires in five storage tanks on Saturday. On Sunday an oil official reported that seven of the 19 tanks at Es Sider were on fire. Fajr Libya has been attempting to take Es Sider (or Al-Sidra) and the nearby Ras Lanuf facility since last Thursday when a speedboat attack killed at least 22 soldiers loyal to the Tobruk government. Another attack was launched on Sunday by the Fajr Libya who are from the city of Misrata, the third largest in Libya and home of powerful anti-government militias.
In retaliation for the raids, the Tobruk government launched air strikes against the
city of Misrata. The government, and earlier CIA-linked General Haftar,
launched numerous strikes on Tripoli to little effect, with
anti-government militias still firmly in control of the city. Residents
claim that strikes hit an aviation school near the Misrata airport, the
port, and also a steel plant. Mohamed El Hejazi
a spokesperson for forces loyal to the Tobruk government said that
aircraft had attacked the port, an air force academy near the airport
and Libya's largest steel plant.However, Ismail Shukri a spokesperson
for forces allied to Libya Dawn said the strikes caused no damage.
Al Jazeera
has an interesting interview with Salah Badi, the leader of the Fajr
Libya militia. He notes that there are radical Islamist militias in
Libya that are a danger:
There are some pockets of fundamentalists in Fajr Libya's orbit. But the majority are the moderate ones. For instance the Shura Council of Benghazi revolutionaries is split into two groups: one group supports the establishment of a national state while the other backs an Islamic order of things. The first group, however, represents the majority. They do not adhere to any Islamic ideology, they drink alcohol and smoke as all the revolutionaries in western Libya do. Only the town of Derna in Libya has notable presence of Islamists, although this is the result of Gaddafi's violent crackdown on the Islamists.
General Khalifa Haftar launched Operation Dignity
back in May, attacking Islamist bases in Benghazi and sacking and
burning parliament while announcing it was replaced. The parliament
continued to meet and his attempt to replace the government was called a
coup. At the time, the prime minister Abdullah al-Thinni, who is now
prime minister of the Tobruk government, denounced the operation calling
it illegal and and an attempted coup. A warrant was issued earlier for
Haftar's arrest. Now Haftar heads up Al-Thinni's armed forces and has
been given the green light to retake Benghazi and Tripoli. On November
6th the Libyan Supreme Court declared the June elections were
unconstitutional and that the Tobruk government should be dissolved. The
Tobruk government rejected the ruling and the international community
seemed not to pay any attention and continues to support the Al-Thinni
government.
Haftar did retake part of Benghazi but recently has been losing ground
again there, and has achieved nothing by bombing Tripoli.
Anti-government forces are now threatening the main Libyan oil ports in
the east.
The UN has condemned
the attacks on the oil facilities. Earlier they had asked Tobruk
government to stop the bombings. The government paid no attention. No
one punishes this government for bombing its own people because it has
the support of powerful countries such as Egypt since it is fighting
Islamist "terrorists" according to their narrative. The latest lecture
by the UN on Libyan violence does not mention the continued bombing
attacks by Tobruk. New UN-sponsored peace talks are scheduled for January 5th somewhere outside of Libya.
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