Ap
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, December 16, 2024, p. 23
Cairo: Armed groups clashed yesterday in a city in western Libya, trapping residents in their homes and setting fires at the country’s second-largest oil refinery, officials said.
The fighting in the coastal city of Zawiya, about 47 kilometers west of the capital, Tripoli, pitted gunmen loyal to the Shurafaa tribe against militant leader Mohamed Kushlaf, according to local media.
Kushlaf was sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council in 2018 for his alleged involvement in human trafficking.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the clashes, which are not out of the ordinary in western Libya, dominated by uncontrolled militias and armed groups allied with the government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.
Oil-rich Libya has been divided for years between rival governments in the east and west. It was plunged into chaos after the intervention of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the grounds that then leader Muammar Gaddafi was planning a killing against its population, which gave rise to confrontation between militias and forces of the government of Gaddafi, assassinated on October 20, 2011. In the midst of the chaos that followed the fall of Gaddafi, the militias grew in wealth and power, particularly in Tripoli. and the west of the country.
Yesterday’s fighting closed a major coastal highway connecting Zawiya with other cities in western Libya and classes were suspended.
Many families are stuck at home. Bullets are fired indiscriminately, hitting homesresident Ahmed Abu Hussein said by phone. He noted that the clashes occurred in various parts of the city, including densely populated neighborhoods, causing panic and terror among civilians.
The crashes caused severe damage to storage tanks at the Zawiya oil refinery, the Libyan National Oil Corporation said.
