{"id":28537,"date":"2016-09-12T02:31:35","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T02:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/libya-fighting-erupts-near-ras-lanuf-and-sidra\/"},"modified":"2016-09-12T02:31:32","modified_gmt":"2016-09-12T02:31:32","slug":"libya-fighting-erupts-near-ras-lanuf-and-sidra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/libya-fighting-erupts-near-ras-lanuf-and-sidra\/","title":{"rendered":"Libya: Fighting erupts near Ras Lanuf and Sidra oil terminals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Forces loyal to a Libyan general have attacked key oil terminals held by allies of the UN-backed government.}<\/p>\n<p>Gen Khalifa Haftar&#8217;s fighters say they took control of the Ras Lanuf and Sidra terminals but the claim was denied by a militia guarding them.<\/p>\n<p>The militia did confirm coming under attack on Sunday morning and said there had been a number of casualties.<\/p>\n<p>Libya has been plagued by instability and infighting since the toppling of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Oil production has dropped to about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the 1.6m bpd it was producing before Gaddafi&#8217;s fall, Reuters news agency reports.<\/p>\n<p>Gen Haftar, a former commander in Gaddafi&#8217;s army who later worked to topple him from exile, is one of the most powerful military figures in Libya.<\/p>\n<p>He refuses to recognise the authority of the UN-backed Government of National Accord in the capital Tripoli, and is loyal to a rival government based in the eastern city of Tobruk.<\/p>\n<p>The general leads the Libyan National Army, an umbrella group of army units and other forces loyal to them.<\/p>\n<p>Ras Lanuf and Sidra together account for more than half of Libya&#8217;s output of oil.<br \/>\nA spokesman for the Petroleum Facilities Guard militia, Ali Alhassi, told the BBC the attack had started at 07:30 (05:30 GMT) and fighting had also been reported at Zuitina.<\/p>\n<p>There were casualties but he could not give any confirmed numbers, he added.<br \/>\nAhmed al-Masmari, a spokesman for Gen Haftar&#8217;s forces, told reporters they had taken Ras Lanuf and Sidra and were still fighting for Zuitina.<\/p>\n<p>The UK Ambassador to Libya, Peter Millett, tweeted to say reports of fighting around Libya&#8217;s oil terminals were &#8220;worrying&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Martin Kobler, head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, tweeted: &#8220;worried about reported fighting in the oil crescent. will add to division and further restricting oil exports. oil belongs to ALL libyans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-14923 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_91158814_mediaitem91158812.jpg\" alt=\"Sidra - seen here earlier this year - is one of the oil terminals on Libya&#039;s Mediterranean coast\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Forces loyal to a Libyan general have attacked key oil terminals held by allies of the UN-backed government.} Gen Khalifa Haftar&#8217;s fighters say they took control of the Ras Lanuf and Sidra terminals but the claim was denied by a militia guarding them. The militia did confirm coming under attack on Sunday morning and said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28537"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=28537"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=28537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}