Alwaght-ISIS Terrorists have carried out attacks near strategic oil facilities in northern Libya on Monday but were repulsed by the country`s army.
The terrorists first carried out a suicide car bomb attack on a military checkpoint at the entrance to the town of al Sidra, killing two soldiers, said a colonel in the army loyal to the internationally recognized government. The terrorists later launched an attack on the town of Ras Lanouf via the south but did not manage to enter penetrate.
For several weeks now ISIS terrorists have made several attempts to push east from the coastal city of Sirte under its control to reach Libya`s “oil crescent” where key oil terminals such as al-Sidra and Ras Lanouf are based.
During Monday`s attack a 420,000-barrel oil tank in Ras Lanouf caught fire. The Takfiri terrorist group posted a message on Twitter claiming that its fighters had led an “attack on the al Sidra area followed by violent clashes”.
The group said that the attack came after it took control of Ben Jawad town, 150km east of the central coastal city Sirte, which has been under ISIS control since June 2015. Monday`s attack is the first of its kind since ISIS terrorists seized Sirte last summer.
The group has taken advantage of chaos in Libya since the 2011 revolt that ousted and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi to extend its influence there.
The UN is pressing both sides to accept a power-sharing agreement it hopes will help reverse gains made by ISIS.
Oil is Libya`s main natural resource, with a pre-revolt output capacity of about 1.6m barrels per day, accounting for more than 95% of exports and 75% of the budget.
Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi`s dictatorship four years ago, Libya remains deeply fractured with two rival governments -- a self-declared one in Tripoli and an internationally recognized one in the east -- each backed by coalitions of former rebels and militias.
Amid the chaos, ISIS Takfiri terrorists have gradually extended their presence, taking over the city of Sirte while wreaking havoc in the capital, Tripoli. Recent reports state that ISIS terrorist group ringleader Abu Bakar al Bahgadi has escaped Syria following intensified Russian airstrikes and relocated to Sirte.
