Libyan forces pummel IS in Sirte

Govt says in talks to reopen 2 major oil ports

MISRATA, Libya, July 12, (Agencies): Libyan forces allied with the UN-backed government have been shelling and carrying out air strikes on the centre of Sirte city in a siege of Islamic State militants there, an official said on Tuesday.

Militants defending Islamic State’s last stronghold in Libya have been keeping Libyan forces back with sniper fire and mortars in Sirte where they are now surrounded after a two month campaign to take the city.

The fall of Sirte would be a major blow to Islamic State, which took over the city a year ago in the chaos of a civil war between rival factions who once battled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

“Our forces have ... targeted militants with artillery and air force around Ouagadougou complex, Ghiza Asskariya district, and in the city centre,” said Rida Issa, spokesman for Misrata forces fighting in Sirte.

“They have targeted Islamic State members, vehicles, ammunition stores, and control rooms.”

He said one Misrata fighter was killed and 20 others wounded in a mortar strike on their position in the Zaafran frontline, near the roundabout where Islamic State once crucified victims.

The bodies of around 13 Islamic State fighters were found, but Misrata forces were driven back by sniper fire.

Unify

Western powers are backing Prime Minister Fayaz Seraj’s government that moved into Tripoli three months ago in an attempt to unify two rival governments and various armed factions. Seraj is working with a unified National Oil Corporation to restart the oil industry.

But while powerful brigades from Misrata city support Seraj for now and lead the fight to liberate Sirte, other hardliners to the east are still opposing him and his government has made little progress in extending its influence.

After a rapid success in driving Islamic State back from a coastal strip of territory it controlled, the battle for Sirte has slowed to street-by-street fighting as Misrata forces clear out residential areas.

Misrata commanders say a few hundreds militants are dug in around the Ouagadougou complex, the university and a city hospital. They are cautious of advancing rapidly after more than 200 fighters died in the campaign so far.

While forces from the city of Misrata are fighting Islamic State in Sirte, rival brigades allied to Gen Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army are fighting to the east on another front in Benghazi and around another eastern town. Haftar’s hardline backers reject Seraj’s government.

Libya’s UN-backed prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj (center), chairs a meeting of his Government of National

Accord (GNA) on July 11, held for the first at the official government headquarters in the capital Tripoli. (AFP)

In other news, Libya’s UN-backed government in Tripoli is in negotiations with an armed brigade controlling two main oil ports to reopen the terminals and lift a force majeure to restart exports, a member of its ruling council said on Monday.

Libya’s oil industry has been battered by conflict among rival armed factions who control quasi-fiefdoms in a challenge to successive governments, and also by attacks by Islamic State militants which has expanded in the chaos.

The Tripoli statement follows positive remarks about reopening the ports from Ibrahim Jathran, commander of the Petroleum Facilities Guard who control Ras Lanuf and Es Sider oil ports with an export capacity of 600,000 barrels per day.

The two ports have been closed since 2014 after fighting between armed factions to control them. Islamic State has also launched attacks there. But Libyan forces recently pushed Islamic State back into its stronghold in Sirte.

“We are holding discussions with the Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) of the central region,” Mousa Alkoni, a member of the government’s presidential council said at a ceremony in Tripoli. “After the discussions with the PFG are finished, the force majeure will be lifted.”

He did not give any further details, but Jathran has said that they are working to reopen the ports. Alkoni said he doubted production would return soon to previous levels.

Militant attacks, fighting between armed factions and a conflict between two rival governments have kept Libya’s oil production at around 350,000 bpd, or less than a quarter of its output before the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi and began years of instability.

Most analysts expect technical damage from shutdowns and militant attacks will delay Libya’s attempts to recover its oil production to its capacity.

State oil company NOC is now merging with an energy company set up in the east by Libya’s rival eastern government, a move seen by analysts as a step to restoring order to the industry. But that will also depend on armed groups on the ground.

The NOC in Tripoli, recognised by the international community, and the eastern NOC had operated in parallel as the rival governments struggled for control. The UN-backed government now in Tripoli is meant to supersede those administrations, but hardliners on both sides are holding out.

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TRIPOLI: Libya’s UN-backed unity government on Monday moved into its official Tripoli offices, more than 100 days after working from a naval base in the capital.

The move comes three months after Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj sailed into Tripoli under naval escort along with several members of his Government of National Accord (GNA).

“Today we were handed the (formal) government headquarters, after spending more than 100 days in the naval base,” Deputy Prime Minister Mussa al-Koni told reporters.

He said this “is the real start” of the government’s work.

Sarraj chaired a cabinet session at the official seat of government after a ceremony attended by police officials and some ministers.

The GNA was the result of a Unbrokered power-sharing deal struck in December, but it is still struggling to unite the divided North African country and fully assert its authority.

A rival government in the eastern city of Tobruk is refusing to cede power until Libya’s elected parliament passes a repeatedly delayed vote of confidence.

However, the GNA has won the loyalty of the central bank and national oil corporation — depositors of the country’s wealth — as well as cities and armed groups in western Libya.

Since March 30, when Sarraj arrived in Tripoli, the GNA has also taken control of several key ministries.

The GNA faces a fearsome set of military, economic and political challenges in a country that has faced chaos since the overthrow of veteran dictator Muammar Gaddafifi in 2011.

Libya’s oil-dependent economy has also been hit hard by the sharp fall in world prices.