Part of the main oil refinery in Libya – and one of the largest crude processing plants in all North Africa – was ablaze tonight as Libyan rebels fought Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s army for control of a key highway along the coast.
A huge column of dense black smoke, lit up by a series of orange fireballs, could be seen rising over the sky near Ras Lanuf, which the two sides have been fighting over for almost a week now. Al Jazeera, the Arabic news channel, reported that oil storage tanks had been struck by bombs, while a local engineer said that it was pipeline feeding the Es Sider refinery, which is capable of processing 220,000 barrels of oil a day, or 57 percent of Libya’s total capacity.
“I know for sure that what they blew up was an oil pipe. I know the whole line by heart,” said Ali al-Aguri, an oil company mechanic who works at a nearby plant.
Both sides were blaming the other for the massive fire, which even in peace time could take weeks to extinguish. The rebels said Colonel Gaddafi’s troops were playing a “dirty game” by bombing the facility, and more air strikes took place even as the huge plumes of smoke rose into the desert sky. The regime in Tripoli, in turn blamed “Al Qaeda” backed armed elements, its term for the rebels who have driven back the government’s forces to the town of Bin Jawad, just west of Ras Lanuf.
Libya’s oil exports are already down by as much as a million barrels per day, and the country’s second largest refinery is located in the town of Zawiyah, 30 miles west of Tripoli, where some of the heaviest fighting has taken place as government forces try to crush a rebel stronghold there.
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In the east, Colonel Gaddafi’s forces have stood their ground in the town though, using tanks, artillery and missiles to halt the rebel advance westwards to the Libyan leaders’ birthplace and strategically valuable town of Sirte.
There were more skirmishes today between the two sides, but neither appeared to have the ability to drive decisively forwards. Colonel Gaddafi’s forces have better weapons and were shelling rebel checkpoints and attacking with warplanes, but the rebels are fired up with a great zeal to march on Tripoli and overthrow the man who has ruled the country for almost 42 years with an iron fist.
But today, for the first time, the rebels deployed Katyusha rockets, multiple unguided missiles fired from a truck an effective in the open desert warfare they are now engaged in.