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| Africa North | |
| Clashes kill 30 in Benghazi in escalating Libya turmoil | |
| 2014-07-30 | |
| Libyan forces on Tuesday battled Islamist militants with rockets and warplanes for control of an army base in the eastern city of Benghazi after at least 30 people were killed in overnight fighting, Reuters reported. Intense fighting in Benghazi, Libya's second city, and battles between rival militias in the capital Tripoli have pushed Libya deeper into chaos after two weeks of the fiercest violence since the 2011 civil war ousted Muammar Gaddafi. A rocket hit a fuel depot near Tripoli airport two days ago, igniting a huge blaze that Libyan fire-fighters on Tuesday were fighting to put out. Italy's government and Italian oil group ENI had agreed to help them, the government said. Three years after Gaddafi's fall, the OPEC nation has failed to control ex-rebel militias who refuse to disband and who are threatening the unity of the country. The extent of recent hostilities has increased Western worries that Libya is sliding towards becoming a failed state and may once again go to war. In Benghazi, battles have intensified since special forces and regular air force units joined ranks with a renegade army general, Khalifa Haftar, who launched a campaign against Islamist militants entrenched in the city, the home of the revolution against Gaddafi's more than 40-year rule. "Groups of terrorists calling themselves al-Shoura Council Forces are attacking the government's main military base," Colonel Wanis Bukhamada, a special forces spokesman in Benghazi, told Reuters. "We have received 30 corpses so far," a medical source told Reuters at Benghazi's main hospital. Islamist fighters from one of those groups, Ansar al Sharia, classified as a foreign terrorist organization by Washington, have been blamed by authorities for carrying out the attack on the U.S. Benghazi consulate in 2012 in which the U.S. ambassador was killed. A government MiG warplane crashed during Tuesday's fighting in Benghazi. A Reuters reporter saw the pilot parachuting to ground after hearing an explosion. A spokesman for Haftar's forces said it was due to a technical problem.
A spokesman for the National Oil Corporation said on Tuesday the armed factions in Tripoli had agreed to a brief cease-fire to allow emergency services to fight the blazing fuel storage tanks containing millions of litres of fuel. The tanks are operated by Brega oil company, which is owned by NOC, and store oil for local consumption in Libya. Black smoke was billowing from one of the tanks hit by a rocket on Sunday near the airport road. The highway and surrounding areas were empty after homes in the area were evacuated, except for occasional militia roadblocks. Fire-fighters were spraying the area with water to cool down storage depots near the fuel tank that was set ablaze to try to extinguish the inferno. Italy, the former colonial power, and Italy's Eni have agreed to help Libya to counter the blaze, Libya's government said in a statement without giving further details. Libya formally requested aid from France to fight the blaze, the French foreign ministry said. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 Let's hear it for "Responsibility to Protect." |
| Posted by: Pappy 2014-07-30 09:34 |
| #2 Where's the Hildabeest, Samantha Power, and Susan Rice? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2014-07-30 08:21 |
| #1 Where's Jawn? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-07-30 03:27 |