Drone strike sparks massive blaze at Libya’s Zawiya refinery

CAIRO, Aug 11, (AP): Firefighters in western Libya fought Tuesday to extinguish the remnants of a massive fire caused by a drone strike on a oil facility, and a car bomb killed a senior military officer in the country's east, in the latest attacks in the chaos-stricken North African nation. The drone hit a gasoline tank at the Zawiya oil refinery in the Mediterranean town of Zawiya on Monday, about 47 kilometers (about 30 miles) west of capital Tripoli, the state-run National Oil Corporation said.

The attack ignited a massive blaze at gasoline-storage tank that burned through the night into Tuesday morning, according to the Civil Defense, a first responders’ agency. There were no reports of casualties, the health authorities said. No group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on oil facilities in Zawiya, or the car car bomb in the eastern city of Benghazi on Monday.

Footage aired by local media showed massive flames and fireballs erupting from the tank, with black and orange smoke rising in the sky as firefighters spray what appears to be foam or water in efforts to quench the intense fire. As they fought the flames, another drone hit close to a key oil tank nearby but did not cause casualties or damage, the company said.

The company said the tank, which held 4.5 million liters of fuel when it was hit, collapsed, and declared a state of maximum emergency at the facility. Monday’s strikes were the latest in a series of drone attacks on oil infrastructure in Zawiya, which houses critical energy infrastructure including the country’s largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant.

The drone strikes come as Turkish Foreign minister Hakan Fidan is set to arrive in Libya for a visit. He is due to visit both Tripoli and Bengahzi. Over the weekend, the oil company said drone strikes had hit a fuel tank and a desalination plant linked to the oil facilities in Zawiya. It said the tank was damaged. Separately, a senior military officer with the forces of powerful commander Khalifa Hifter was killed in a car bomb Monday evening in the eastern city of Benghazi, authorities said.