Drone attacks ignite massive fire at Libya’s Zawiya oil refinery

Key Points:

• Firefighters in western Libya battled a massive fire caused by a drone strike on an oil refinery in Zawiya, a key Mediterranean coastal town, with attacks continuing on the town’s power plant and oil infrastructure.
• The drone strikes ignited large fires, including at a gasoline-storage tank and a fuel storage tank, leading the National Oil Corporation to declare a state of maximum emergency, though no casualties were reported.
• The attacks highlight the fragile security situation around Libya’s critical oil infrastructure amid rising tensions between the western government and local warlord Mohamed Bahroun, who controls Zawiya.
• In eastern Libya’s Benghazi, a car bomb killed Maj. Gen. Fawzy al-Mansouri, a senior military intelligence officer with Khalifa Hifter’s Libyan National Army, underscoring ongoing violence in the divided country.
• Libya remains divided between rival governments in the east and west, with militias wielding significant power; Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is scheduled to visit both Tripoli and Benghazi this week.