Libya halts N Korean tanker as Navy exchanges fire with rebels
13 March 2014 4:24 AM IST
Libya on Monday stopped a North Korean-flagged tanker that had loaded oil from a rebel-held port, after naval forces briefly exchanged fire with the rebels, officials said.
But in a sign of the chaos and conflicting information typical for Libya, rebel leader Ibrahim Jathran denied in a televised statement broadcast from a ship that he had lost control of the oil tanker.
The Libyan officials also said the government will assemble forces to ‘liberate’ all occupied ports, raising the stakes over a blockage that has cut off vital oil revenue.
The conflict over oil wealth is increasing fears that the OPEC producer may slide deeper into chaos or even splinter as the fragile government fails to rein in dozens of militias that helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but now defy state authority.
The rebels, who have seized three ports and partly control a fourth in the North African country, said they had dispatched forces to central Libya to deal with any government attack.
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said that naval forces had seized the North Korean-flagged tanker outside the eastern Es Sider port controlled by rebels and were taking it to a government port in western Libya.
‘The ship is around 20 miles from Es Sider,’ Zeidan said. ‘It stopped due to darkness and won’t move tonight but is under complete control and secured. Tomorrow it will move.’ Naval forces had halted the ship after a brief firefight with the rebels, Culture Minister and government spokesman Habib al-Amin later told reporters. Nobody had been wounded, but he warned opening fire again might damage nearby oil facilities.
But rebel leader Jathran appeared on the television station of his movement after midnight and denied Tripoli’s forces had surrounded the tanker.
Speaking from a ship, Jathran vowed to keep selling oil independently of the government, and blasted the United States for earlier criticizing the crude loading. The station did not identify the ship he was standing on, but it appeared to be smaller than the 37,000-tonne oil tanker.
But in a sign of the chaos and conflicting information typical for Libya, rebel leader Ibrahim Jathran denied in a televised statement broadcast from a ship that he had lost control of the oil tanker.
The Libyan officials also said the government will assemble forces to ‘liberate’ all occupied ports, raising the stakes over a blockage that has cut off vital oil revenue.
The conflict over oil wealth is increasing fears that the OPEC producer may slide deeper into chaos or even splinter as the fragile government fails to rein in dozens of militias that helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but now defy state authority.
The rebels, who have seized three ports and partly control a fourth in the North African country, said they had dispatched forces to central Libya to deal with any government attack.
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said that naval forces had seized the North Korean-flagged tanker outside the eastern Es Sider port controlled by rebels and were taking it to a government port in western Libya.
‘The ship is around 20 miles from Es Sider,’ Zeidan said. ‘It stopped due to darkness and won’t move tonight but is under complete control and secured. Tomorrow it will move.’ Naval forces had halted the ship after a brief firefight with the rebels, Culture Minister and government spokesman Habib al-Amin later told reporters. Nobody had been wounded, but he warned opening fire again might damage nearby oil facilities.
But rebel leader Jathran appeared on the television station of his movement after midnight and denied Tripoli’s forces had surrounded the tanker.
Speaking from a ship, Jathran vowed to keep selling oil independently of the government, and blasted the United States for earlier criticizing the crude loading. The station did not identify the ship he was standing on, but it appeared to be smaller than the 37,000-tonne oil tanker.
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