Category: Libya

Ports in eastern Libya that helped boost international oil prices when they were halted four months ago are within days of reopening, the head of the nation’s energy-protection force said. Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, with combined capacity of 600,000 barrels a day, and a third port, Zueitina, will reopen on Dec. 15, Idris Bukhamada, head of the Petroleum Facilities Guard, a group that protects Libya’s oil installations, said by phone from Ajdabiya today. Ibrahim Al Jedran, a former regional PFG commander whose men blockaded the terminals, agreed to the resumption after intervention by the Al Magharba tribe, Bukhamada said. Al Jedran himself said resumption depends on certain conditions being met. Disrupted exports from Libya has helped buoy the price of Brent crude , a global benchmark, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and the International Energy Agency . Brent’s premium over U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate narrowed to […]

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Who lit the fire that claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and another American at the U.S. diplomatic mission here just over a year ago? Who launched the mortar rounds that killed two CIA contractors that same night? Or, for that matter, who bears responsibility for the 2011 torture and killing of Abdul Fattah Younis, the Gaddafi-era military commander who defected to lead the rebels? “Do you live on Mars?” asked Hashem Bishr, the hard-line Salafist leader of a powerful Tripoli militia. To understand Libya’s unsolved murder mysteries, understand this, Bishr said: “It’s just not a good time.” What he meant is that there are people who know the answers — they’re just not willing to share. Nor is the fragile, post-revolution government prepared to mete out justice, many Libyans and rights groups say. Tripoli’s weak authorities have promised to investigate the killings. “But until now, there […]

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CAIRO — A militia in Benghazi, Libya, tied to the killing of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens fled its headquarters on Monday after an hourslong gun battle with a local military unit, a potential turning point in a continuing struggle between Islamists and their foes for control of the city. At least nine people were killed and more than 50 were wounded, health officials said, as the battle flared out across Benghazi, beginning before dawn. Stores and schools were closed. The local authorities advised residents to stay in their homes and avoid the streets. And by late afternoon, the militia, Ansar al-Shariah, appeared to have disappeared underground. Photographs circulated over the Internet that appeared to show its headquarters emptied and smoking, with the wreckage of a burned-out car sitting outside. The melee followed the deaths of more than 40 people in a similar battle in Tripoli this month, when militiamen […]

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Clashes between Libyan troops and militants in the eastern city of Benghazi on Monday killed at least three people and wounded a dozen more during a military operation, security and medical officials said. Still in training, Libya’s new military is struggling to curb Islamist militants and militias who fought in the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi but refuse to disarm and control parts of the country. Gunfire and explosions could be heard in Benghazi and thick smoke rose from the Ras Obeida area. The army ordered residents to stay off the city streets, witnesses said. Fighting broke out when an army special forces unit pursued a suspect into an area where Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia operates its own checkpoints, Benghazi city security officials said. Ansar al-Sharia was blamed for the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi a year ago when the U.S. ambassador and […]

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Clashes between armed residents and members of a militant Islamic group in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi killed five people and wounded nearly 40 early on Monday, officials said. The fighting started before dawn between armed citizens and members of the officially dissolved militant Ansar al-Shariah group, and later prompted the army’s special forces to step in to quell the violence, said security officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed across much of the city, but mainly in the Raas Obeida district and surrounding areas. Clouds of black smoke hung over Benghazi as ambulances rushed the wounded to hospital. The city’s al-Jalaa hospital received the bodies of four soldiers and one civilian, according to the hospital spokeswoman, Fadya al-Barghathi. Classes were suspended at the city’s schools and local university, and most Benghazi residents […]

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An accident in Omar Mokhtar Avenue in downtown Tripoli. Nobody was injured but there’s a bumper hanging off the back of a car. In just a few seconds, a group gathers around. “Forget about insurance companies in Libya,” says Mansur, a 30-year-old satellite dish installer. “The main problem is that you can easily run into somebody who produces a gun; everyone carries one in their glove box. In such a case there are two options: “You can get back to your car smoothly and leave, but you could also call a brother or a cousin of yours in one of those militias so he backs you up with heavy artillery.” In Libya, the police and the army are names on paper to entities that do not exist on the ground. Security, or the lack of it, comes from the myriad […]

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Austrian energy company OMV said Wednesday its oil production in Libya has been interrupted for close to a month. “Production has been interrupted since the end of October,” the company said in a statement emailed to United Press International. Simmering conflict in Libya since civil war ended in 2011 has curtailed the country’s oil and natural gas production. Rival groups in the east of the country announced in early November they declared independence for the region known as Cyrenaica, which hosts some of Libya’s key oil terminals. Labor strikes have shut down processing facilities in the west of the country. OMV said it evacuated its personnel from Libya when conflict erupted in February 2011 but re-opened its office in Tripoli 10 months later. The company announced Oct. 21 an oil discovery in Libya, made with partners Repsol and Total, was its first since the […]

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Leaders in Libya’s capital city of Tripoli began a three-day strike to protest the country’s freewheeling militias after clashes between pro-government forces and militants from the rival power center of Misrata erupted into deadly violence. In another blow to the government on Sunday, the country’s deputy intelligence chief, Mustapha Noah, was kidnapped at Tripoli’s airport. No one claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, which came a month after a militia briefly kidnapped Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan. The militias from Misrata agreed late Sunday to leave Tripoli within 72 hours, according to local news reports, after Mr. Zidan warned militiamen from outside the capital that there would be a “bloodbath” if they tried to enter Tripoli. Public anger toward militants boiled over on Friday, when protesters here demanded that militias from around the country leave Tripoli. The protesters were fired on when they approached the headquarters of the armed group […]

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CAIRO — The deputy chief of Libya’s intelligence service was abducted from the parking lot of the airport in Tripoli on Sunday afternoon as a standoff between militias and a general strike against militia rule virtually shut down the city. The deputy intelligence chief, Mustafa Noah, was abducted just two days after a militia from the coastal city of Misurata opened fire on a nonviolent demonstration against the domination of Tripoli, Libya’s capital, by such armed brigades. The confrontation degenerated into a shootout that killed at least 43 and wounded hundreds, according to Libyan health officials. Many across Libya called the weekend a watershed for the vexed revolution that ousted Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi two years ago. It brought the first large demonstration by residents of the capital against the freewheeling militias that arrived to help oust Colonel Qaddafi and never left the city, and it posed a major test […]

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