Islamic State militants attack forces guarding Libya oil port: official

Reuters ^ | Thu Oct 1, 2015 4:47pm EDT | Ayman El-Warfalli

[keat]

BENGHAZI, Libya

Islamic State militants attacked forces guarding one of Libya's main oil ports on Thursday with a gun assault and an attempted car bomb in an escalation of their campaign in the North African state, a local security official said.

Islamic State has gained ground in Libya where two rival governments -- one internationally recognized and the other self-declared -- are battling for control, leaving a security vacuum four years after the uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

Militants attacked guards at a gate near Es Sider port, which is under the control of forces allied with the recognized government, the security official said. The terminal has been closed since December because of fighting with other rival armed factions and problems at supply oilfields.

"An attack was carried out by militants of Islamic State on a gate before sunset in the Es Sider area," Ali Hassi, spokesman for the a local battalion of the Petroleum Facilities Guard, a force allied with the official government.

He said one guard was killed and two more wounded, but he gave no details about how close the gate was to the port itself. Militants later tried to target the same gate with a car bomb but failed and four of them were shot dead, he said.

Libya's oil infrastructure has been battered by the emerging conflict in the OPEC state, where rival armed factions, Islamist militants and tribal groups often battle each other and protesters close oilfields to demand jobs and payments.

Tripoli is under the control of Libya Dawn forces, which set up their own self-declared government and parliament. The internationally recognized government operates out of the east. Both are backed by loose alliances of armed factions.

[keat]

In the chaos, Islamic State has set up a base in the city of Sirte, and has attacked oilfields before. In March, they attacked al-Ghani oilfield, and nine oil workers including foreigners were kidnapped there.

But a move to try to attack a key field or port like Es Sider would be a major escalation of their campaign.

[Hugin]

Preview of Obama’s plan for Syria. Fortunately Putin has a better plan.

[Always A Marine]

What were we thinking when we overthrew Gaddafi? Or Saddam Hussein, for that matter? As bad as he is, Bashar Assad protects Syrian Christians and was keeping a lid on Islamist chaos before we granted ourselves the right and duty to overthrow him, too. Now the chaos we enabled in Iraq, Libya and Syria is spreading to Europe.

[PGR88]

Obama and Clinton assassinated Khaddafi and started a Civil War in Libya. Its central bank was looted of $6 billion in gold and its oil industry is divided among rival gangs of Islamists. This chaos also led to the killing of a US Ambassador and citizens because the clown-show in the White House needed to insist there was no Al-Qaeda in Libya and then continued with the utterly asinine excuse of it being due to a youtube video.

In the meantime, thousands of Libyans are killed every month and tens of thousands are fleeing the country to Europe.

Obama is an angel of death and destruction

[100American]

Agree, shows the money connections for ISIS as the Russians are savaging them and have cut the oil flow in Syria. Libya (Benghazi) was part of the arming the Freedom Fighter

Looks like Bam Bams money machine has sand in the gears, Valerie is not gonna be happy. Guess her crown is almost ready

[VerySadAmerican]

What were we thinking? We were thinking “We’ve got to do all we can to help the muzzies take over the world.”