Battle for key Libya oil ports creates new crisis

Libyan National Army forces yesterday launched a counter-attack to regain key oil ports seized by militias.

Militias, including the Benghazi Defence Brigades, originally from the city of the same name, captured Es Sider and the nearby Ras Lanuf refinery on Thursday in fighting that set ablaze a large storage tank.

The attack apparently caught the army, commanded by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, off guard, with most of its troops farther east fighting militias for control of the coastal town of Derna.

The Derna battle has been raging for three weeks, with the army claiming to have captured most of the town, which is the last eastern Libyan settlement held by militia forces.

In response to attacks on the oil ports, Field Marshal Haftar’s forces launched air strikes on Friday, with reports of an armoured infantry battalion being sent to bolster the counter-attack.

The battle is a rerun of fighting in March last year when the militants captured the two ports for 10 days before being forced out by the army after suffering heavy casualties.

Libya’s two governments condemned the latest attack, with the House of Representatives parliament in Tobruk and its rival, UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli, demanding the militias withdraw.

The UN Support Mission for Libya, which is negotiating for elections to be held in December to end the civil war, issued its own condemnation.

“This dangerous escalation in the Oil Crescent area puts Libya’s economy in jeopardy and risks igniting a widespread confrontation,” the mission tweeted.

The state-owned National Oil Corporation has relocated its employees from the area, which is on the central coast, with the loading of tankers suspended.

The two ports handle exports from the Oil Crescent, a vast area of production fields that supply more than two thirds of Libya’s oil output and is under the control of the Tobruk parliament.

Fighting at the ports and in Derna are significant obstacles to UN plans to hold elections on December 10, a date set in peace talks hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris last month.

Some diplomats doubt the feasibility of holding a vote while parts of the country remain war zones, and the fighting at the oil ports is a reminder of the bitter divisions that continue to grip Libya.

The battle is a rerun of fighting in March last year, when the militants captured the two ports for 10 days before being forced out by the army