Car bomb in Libyan oil port kills 7, wounds 11 – guards spokesman

The spokesman of the petroleum facilities guards said in a press statement on Wednesday that though the fighting that started last Monday is still continuing, but the guards are in control of the ports of Es Sider and RasLanuf.

At least nine troops were killed and more than 40 wounded in fighting around the perimeter of the area on Monday and Tuesday, said Ali al-Hassi, a spokesman for the security forces.

Ras Lanuf and the nearby oil port of Es Sider have come under attack from Islamic State militants this week.

DAt least six oil tanks are said to be on fire at the port terminals of Sidra and Ras Lanuf in western Libya.

The tanks are said to hold up to 460,000 barrels each, according to an oil official in eastern Libya quoted by Reuters news agency.

Libya is split between political factions and armed groups competing for power and for the country’s oil wealth, five years after the revolt that toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. NOC was committed to its partnership with foreign oil companies and had taken measures to help protect oil workers and facilities, according to a statement on the company’s website.

An attempt by Daesh (ISIS) militants to take control of a huge Libyan oilfield is wreaking havoc in the war-torn country this week and producing oil fires fierce enough to be seen from satellite imagery taken from space.

Unable to quell the fire, the National Oil Co. said it was “helpless and not being able to do anything against this deliberate destruction to the oil installations”.

Hassi, meanwhile, said guards have discovered the bodies of 30 Daesh militants, and managed to capture two military tanks and other cars from the terrorists.

The Islamic State group, which controls swaths of territory across the Mediterranean Sea in Iraq and Syria, previously tried to attack Es Sider in October.

Oil is Libya s main natural resource, and the country sits on reserves estimated at 48 billion barrels, the largest in Africa.

The UN is trying to win support for a deal to form a national unity government in Libya, but the plan has faced resistance from members of rival parliaments based in Tripoli and the east.