GREEK-OPERATED
OIL TANKER BOMBED AT LIBYAN PORT, TWO CREW MEMBERS DEAD, ONE GREEK AND ONE
ROMANIAN
By Reuters On January 5, 2015
BENGHAZI, Libya/ATHENS, Jan 5 (Reuters) – A Libyan
warplane from forces loyal to the internationally recognised government bombed
a Greek-operated oil tanker anchored off the coast, killing two crewmen in an
escalation of hostilities between factions vying to rule the country.
Military officials said the vessel had been warned not
to enter port and said it had been transporting Islamist militants to Derna,
the eastern port city where the ship was at anchor when it was hit on Sunday.
State oil firm NOC said it had leased the ship to carry
fuel for power generation to Derna from Brega, an oil port to the west. The
vessel was damaged but none of the 12,600 tonnes of heavy oil leaked out, the
Athens-based operator Aegean Shipping Enterprises Co. said.
Greece condemned what it called the “unprovoked and
cowardly” attack that killed one Greek and one Romanian crew member and wounded
two others and said it had contacted the U.N. envoy for Libya and the European
Union about the incident.
“The Greek government will take all the necessary
actions towards Libyan authorities, despite the unrest, so that light is shed
on the tragic incident, the attackers identified and punished and the families
of the victims reimbursed,” it said.
The strike on the Liberian-flagged vessel ARAEVO was
part of increasingly chaotic violence in Libya which has two parallel
governments: the officially recognised one, which has been pushed out of the
capital, and the one run by an armed group that seized Tripoli last summer.
Each side has appointed its own officials to run NOC and
the oil ministry, leading to confusion over who controls what.
Fighting for control of oil assets has slashed Libya’s
oil output to 380,000 barrels per day from the 1.6 million bpd produced before
the violent ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Ahmed Bu Zayad Al-Mismari, a spokesman for the
internationally recognised government’s general chief of staff, confirmed that
one of it warplanes had struck the ship.
“The ports of Derna and Benghazi were closed, and we
have cautioned all oil tankers not to get close to these ports,” he said,
adding that the vessel had not informed officials of its destination and had
not sought permission.
Since the war that ended Gaddafi’s four-decade rule,
rival nationalist, Islamist, tribal and regionalist forces have battled for
power. But the conflict has coalesced around two loosely aligned factions.
The government and parliament which have been pushed out
of Tripoli to Tobruk, an eastern port town some 150 km (100 miles) from the
Egyptian border, has allied itself with ex-rebel forces in Zintan, near
Tripoli, and a former Gaddafi army general, Khalifa Haftar, who is conducting a
campaign against Islamists.
Tripoli is now controlled by a self-declared government
set up by forces allied to the city of Misrata, reinstating a former parliament
and taking over ministries. (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou and George
Georgiopoulos in Athens, Ulf Laessing in Cairo, writing by Deepa Babington and
Patrick Markey; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Robin Pomeroy)