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Libya Rivals Battle for Key Oil Region
 [ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Extremist militias on Friday attacked Libya’s main oil-production area in the east, prompting the forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... who control it to retaliate with air strikes, military sources said. The attack was spearheaded by the Benghazi Defense Brigades, a coalition of mostly krazed killer militias and gangs, and was backed by tribal fighters and former petroleum installation guards. They "advanced towards the oil crescent and are 15 kilometers (nine miles) south of the town of Nofliya," said Colonel Moftah al-Megarief, who heads an oil facilities guard controlled by Haftar. Nofiliya is on the edge of the North African country’s strategic oil crescent, home to the main export terminals of al-Sidra, Brega, Ras Lanuf and Zuwaytina which Haftar’s forces seized in September last year. "We are trying to repel them and the air force has carried out several sorties," Megarief said, declining to elaborate. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... an officer on Haftar’s staff told AFP that MiG-23 warplanes and Mi-35 attack helicopters bombarded a convoy of Benghazi Defense Brigades vehicles south of Nofliya. "Several vehicles were destroyed," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Posted by: Fred 2017-03-04 |
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