Islamic State fighters clashed with a force guarding Libya’s Es Sider oil export terminal on Monday, witnesses reported, and the militants said they had taken a nearby town.
The ultra-hardline group, which has taken advantage of years of chaos to grab territory in the Opec member, said in an online statement it had also set off a suicide car bomb during the clashes, causing casualties.
There was no one from Libya’s authorities immediately available to comment on the reports of the fighting or the capture of Ben Jawad. Es Sider and nearby Ras Lanuf oil ports, between Sirte and Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast, have been closed for more than a year amid fighting between rival factions for control of the North African state and its energy reserves. Islamic State controls the city of Sirte and has attacked several oilfields in the south of Libya - though it has so far not taken control of any oil installations as it has done in Syria. Libya has been split between rival governments, one based in Tripoli and the other in the east of the country, creating a security vacuum that militants have exploited. Es Sider is protected by Ibrahim al-Jathran’s Petrol Facilities Guard.