Libyan Troops Clash With Striking oil Workers

{{Libyan authorities have clashed with striking oil workers and blocked attempts by strikers to sell oil themselves at the country’s largest crude terminal.}}

The head of Libya’s Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), Edris Abokhamada, said he had contacted the defence ministry for reinforcements after clashes on Tuesday at the Zueitina oil port, which has been shut since mid-July.

“The protesters are still inside the port but the citizens want them to leave,” Abokhamada told the Reuters news agency. “The Zueitina port protesters fired on civilians when they asked them to leave. One is injured.”

Independent confirmation of the shooting was not immediately available.

Local resistance to strikes has shown the stranglehold on Libya’s vital oil exports loosening, industry sources in the country say. A second oil port, Marsa al-Brega, reopened on Tuesday.

Abokhamada said that the protesters at Zueitina were allied with Ibrahim al-Jathran, the leader of strikers at the biggest oil port, Es Sider, who before his dismissal was PFG leader in central Libya.

{agencies}