[AnNahar] Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group jihadists killed eight guards on Friday in an attack on the southern Libyan oilfield of al-Ghani, a front man for the unit tasked with guarding oil installations said.
"Extremists from the Libyan subsidiary of IS mounted a surprise attack on the oilfield, killing eight soldiers," Ali al-Hassi said.
Libya's National Oil Company also confirmed the attack.
A statement from the NOC said that unidentified gunnies rampaged through buildings and other infrastructure and set fires, adding that staff were unharmed as they had fled.
Columns of smoke from the burning oilfield could be seen as far as the town of Zela, 60 kilometers (40 miles) away, the statement said.
Hassi said government forces later recaptured the oil installation, and that reinforcements were sent from nearby oilfields.
Violence and a slowdown at export terminals had already forced most oilfields to shut down for the past several weeks.
Oil is Libya's main natural resource, with a pre-revolution output of about 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), accounting for more than 95 percent of exports and 75 percent of budget revenues.
But production fell to around 350,000 bpd in December when the Fajr Libya coalition of militias, including Islamist groups, attacked oil terminals in the east.