Fighting for Libya oil ports rages on

Militias battle with eastern army for two key terminals

Heavy air strikes hit militias holding two central Libyan oil ports yesterday as the Libyan National Army pressed a counter-offensive to recapture them. Witnesses near Sidra and Ras Lanuf ports said planes dropped bombs on positions held by the Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB), which seized them from the LNA on March 3.

At least one helicopter gunship fired rockets at BDB positions south-east of the Ras Lanuf port, along a desert front line facing army positions, during what appeared to be the heaviest of daily bombings on the militias since they captured the ports.

Additional night strikes were reported early yesterday with jets targeting supply bases belonging to the BDB farther east, near Ben Jawad town on Libya’s main coastal road.

The fighting is the most serious military confrontation so far between the army, the main force of Libya’s elected parliament, the House of Representatives, and fighters supporting the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) – a rival administration in Tripoli. Idris Bukhamada, the commander of the GNA’s Petroleum Facilities Guard, which took over control of Sidra and Ras Lanuf from the BDB last week, said the army strikes hit oil installations at the ports. The army denied this, however.

Witnesses appeared to back army accounts, reporting that the bombing seemed to target the militias in residential blocks outside both ports, and in the town of Ras Lanuf, rather than the ports themselves.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation closed the ports on March 4 and two tankers that were supposed to have docked at Sidra last week were diverted to other ports. Oil production has since fallen from 700,000 barrels a day to 620,000, the National Oil Corporation said on Friday.

East of the ports, Libyan National Army commander Field Marshal Khaifa Haftar has assembled a powerful force of 5,000 troops from brigades across eastern Libya. This force appears to be waiting before launching a promised ground assault on the ports, after a meeting of eastern and some western tribal leaders in Benghazi on March 9 gave its blessing to the advance. Meanwhile in Tripoli, GNA defence minister Al Mahdi Al Barghathi called for ambulances to bring wounded fighters – presumably those aligned with the UN-backed administration – west from the battle. The BDB have given no casualty figures so far, while Libyan media reports said more than 40 army soldiers had died.

The chief of the United Nations Support Mission for Libya, Martin Kobler , met delegates from the House of Representatives in Tripoli on Friday, seeking consensus on the Libya Political Agreement – a power sharing plan that the house has so far not signed.

“I urge House of Representatives members to rally behind the LPA and nominate their delegation for talks,” the German diplomat tweeted after the meeting. “Libya cannot wait!”

The political agreement would allow the Government of National Accord to become Libya’s legitimate government while the House of Representatives would form the legislature – a deal the UN mission says could bring peace to Libya.

Attitudes are hardening on all sides, however, after the House of Representatives last week said it was pulling out of the Libya Political Agreement talks.

Oil production has fallen from 700,000 barrels a day to 620,000 since March 4