Libya: Firefighters battle remnants of Zawiya refinery drone strike blaze
A drone strike on a gasoline tank at Libya's Zawiya oil refinery sparked a massive blaze that firefighters struggled to contain on Tuesday, with no casualties reported.
Firefighters in western Libya worked through Tuesday to extinguish the remnants of a major blaze at an oil facility in the Mediterranean town of Zawiya, triggered by a drone strike a day earlier.
The attack, which hit a gasoline storage tank at the Zawiya oil refinery on Monday, ignited a fire that burned through the night and was still active on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Civil Defense agency. The refinery is located roughly 47 kilometers west of the capital, Tripoli.
The state-run National Oil Corporation confirmed the tank, which was holding 4.5 million liters of fuel at the time of the strike, had collapsed. A state of maximum emergency was declared at the facility. Health authorities reported no casualties from the incident.
Local media footage showed large flames and fireballs rising from the tank, with thick black and orange smoke billowing into the sky as emergency crews sprayed foam and water in an attempt to control the fire.
In a related development, two drones also targeted the town's power plant, with one damaging its firefighting system and the other landing near the main fuel storage area, according to local reports.
Monday's strikes are the latest in a series of drone attacks on oil infrastructure in Zawiya, which hosts critical energy assets including the country's largest refinery, an export terminal, and a power plant. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, nor for a car bomb that killed a senior military officer in the eastern city of Benghazi on the same day.
The escalation comes as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is scheduled to visit Libya, with stops planned in both Tripoli and Benghazi.
Analyst Jalel Harchaoui, affiliated with the Royal United Services Institute in London, suggested that warlord Mohamed Bahroun, who has been cornered by the government, and his forces "are likely to resort to desperate measures."
The attacks underscore the fragile security situation in Libya, which has been mired in chaos and division since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi. The country remains split between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Western Libya is largely controlled by local militias loosely allied with Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah's government in Tripoli, while the eastern administration is led by Prime Minister Ossama Hammad.