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Clashes between rival militias in Libya kill 47

Clashes between rival Libyan militias fighting for control of the international airport in the capital, Tripoli, have killed 47 people over the past 24 hours, Libya’s Health Ministry said. The ministry said on its website late Sunday that the fighting also left 120 people wounded. It also said it had not yet received the full casualty report. The weeklong battle over the airport is being waged by a powerful militia from the western city of Zintan, which controls the facility, and Islamist-led militias, including fighters from Misrata, east of Tripoli. The clashes resumed Sunday after cease-fire efforts failed. Television footage broadcast Sunday showed a mortar shell striking a Libyan Arab Airlines plane and a column of black smoke billowing from inside the airport, which has been closed since last Monday. Libya is witnessing one of its worst spasms of violence since the ouster of longtime dictator […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Can Libya remain united?

Libya is evidently disintegrating as the daily escalation of violence is aimlessly continuing and it seems that there is no hope insight for a ceasefire of some sort. The situation is getting progressively from bad to worse, by the hour, as Libya is quickly heading back almost to the time of pre-unification of the country in the middle of the previous century. Many observers are rushing to history books to inquisitively review that part of Libya’s past in an attempt to understand what is currently happening in the country and in which direction is it going. One day in late 1991, my brother-in-law, the late Mansour Rashid Al Kikhya, first foreign minister of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, briefed me about that period of his country’s history, which he and a few hundred other young Libyans had aspired to build. They had in their sight the task of rebuilding a modern […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya truce shattered by fresh fighting

Fighting between powerful militias battling for control of Tripoli’s airport broke out again Friday, just hours after they had agreed a truce, an airport official and witnesses said. The clashes came a day after the government sought the United Nations’ help to prevent the country from becoming a “failed state.” “The airport was once again today hit by mortar fire which struck the security offices,” but caused no casualties, airport security official al-Jilani al-Dahech told AFP. Airport security forces returned fire, he said without giving further details. Libya’s main international airport has been closed since Sunday, with rockets causing damage to aircraft and the main terminal building amid warnings by officials that the facility could remain closed for months. The violence erupted when Islamist gunmen from the city of Misrata attacked anti-Islamist fighters from the city of Zintan who have been controlling the airport for the past […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Gunmen kill 21 Egyptian military border guards near Libya

Gunmen killed 21 Egyptian military border guards near the frontier with Libya on Saturday, highlighting a growing threat from an area that security officials say has become a haven for militants seeking to topple the Cairo government. Security officials said the assailants were smugglers. But an army spokesman said on his Facebook page that "terrorists" – the term authorities use to describe Islamist militants – were behind the attack. He said a weapons storage facility was blown up by a rocket-propelled grenade in an exchange of fire, killing the soldiers and wounding four others. The attack took place in Wadi al-Gadid governorate, which borders both Sudan and Libya. Two smugglers were killed in clashes with the guards, security officials said. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has repeatedly expressed concerns about militants who have capitalized on the chaos in Libya and set up operations along the border. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya rebels attack Tripoli’s main airport

Several shells have hit the terminal of Libya’s main airport as rival armed groups fought in Tripoli for a fifth straight day, and gunmen assassinated a female politician in the country’s east. In another sign of growing turmoil, air controllers on Thursday halted work in Tripoli, shutting off much of the oil-producing country from international traffic. Tripoli International Airport has been a battlefield since fighters attacked it with heavy guns on Sunday to wrest control from a rival militia which has been based there since the fall of Libya’s late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The conflict is fuelling worries that Libya is on the point of turning into a failed state where a weak central government is powerless to control the militias which helped oust Gaddafi in 2011. The airport fighting pits brigades from Misrata, a western coastal town, against rival fighters from Zintan in the northwest. On […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya rebels attack Tripoli's main airport

Several shells have hit the terminal of Libya’s main airport as rival armed groups fought in Tripoli for a fifth straight day, and gunmen assassinated a female politician in the country’s east. In another sign of growing turmoil, air controllers on Thursday halted work in Tripoli, shutting off much of the oil-producing country from international traffic. Tripoli International Airport has been a battlefield since fighters attacked it with heavy guns on Sunday to wrest control from a rival militia which has been based there since the fall of Libya’s late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The conflict is fuelling worries that Libya is on the point of turning into a failed state where a weak central government is powerless to control the militias which helped oust Gaddafi in 2011. The airport fighting pits brigades from Misrata, a western coastal town, against rival fighters from Zintan in the northwest. On […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil output cut at Libya’s el-Feel field

LONDON–Oil production has been slashed at Libya’s el-Feel field, an oil official said Thursday, as a crude output recovery in the country starts to fizzle. The reopening of two key oil ports and a production restart at the country’s largest oil field, Sharara, drove international oil prices to a three-month low last week. But after ramping up to a five-month high, Libya’s oil production started falling again earlier Thursday. Now output is set to decline further after staff cut production at the 130,000 barrel-a-day el-Feel field, which is operated by an Eni SpA joint venture. Eni didn’t return a request for comment. "The field only has five wells under operation, other wells are totally closed," a person at the joint venture said, citing mounting insecurity. Staff are also considering shutting the field altogether, he said. An outbreak of violence in Tripoli–the worst in six months–led to fear of new […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil output cut at Libya's el-Feel field

LONDON–Oil production has been slashed at Libya’s el-Feel field, an oil official said Thursday, as a crude output recovery in the country starts to fizzle. The reopening of two key oil ports and a production restart at the country’s largest oil field, Sharara, drove international oil prices to a three-month low last week. But after ramping up to a five-month high, Libya’s oil production started falling again earlier Thursday. Now output is set to decline further after staff cut production at the 130,000 barrel-a-day el-Feel field, which is operated by an Eni SpA joint venture. Eni didn’t return a request for comment. "The field only has five wells under operation, other wells are totally closed," a person at the joint venture said, citing mounting insecurity. Staff are also considering shutting the field altogether, he said. An outbreak of violence in Tripoli–the worst in six months–led to fear of new […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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More than 5,000 civilians killed in Iraq this year: U.N.

At least 5,576 Iraqi civilians have been killed this year in violence, the United Nations said on Friday in the most detailed account yet of the impact of months of unrest culminating in an assault by Sunni militants through the north of the country. At least 11,665 have been wounded since January, when Sunni insurgents led by al Qaeda offshoot now known as the Islamic State overran the city of Falluja in the western province of Anbar, the U.N. said in a report. Last month, the insurgents seized swathes of northern Iraq, including the area’s largest city Mosul. Of the 2,400 people killed in June, 1,531 were civilians, the U.N. said earlier this month. The report documents what it calls "systematic and egregious violations" of international law by the group now calling itself the Islamic State. The U.N found the group had executed civilians, committed sexual […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya’s Oil Production Rises Faster Than Expected

Libya’s oil production has risen to about 554,000 barrels a day as production ramps up faster than expected at the country’s largest field Sharara, an oil official said Tuesday. The official at state-run National Oil Corp. said the production includes about 50,000 barrels a day of condensates and is up from 470,000 barrels a day Monday. The news come despite intense fighting in recent days at Tripoli airport, in the worst violence in six months in the capital.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple