Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tripoli (Fides News Agency) – Two attacks in the past 24 hours in the two areas along which Libya is politically divided have heightened tensions in the North African country.
In Tripolitania, explosions and a fire have been reported at a fuel storage tank inside the Zawiya refinery, about 40 kilometers west of Tripoli. The plant has a processing capacity of approximately 120,000 barrels per day and is connected to the giant Sharara oil field, one of Libya’s main production centers.
A gasoline storage tank at the refinery exploded after being directly targeted. It is the third drone attack in a matter of days against the facility. No armed group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The National Oil Corporation (NOC) has declared a state of maximum alert at the Zawiya Oil Complex.
In the east of the country, in Cyrenaica, the head of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Fawzi al-Mansouri, was killed last night, August 10, by a bomb planted under his car. The attack took place after the general had attended prayers at the Sayyida Aisha Mosque in al-Hawari, an area heavily secured by security forces. Here too, no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Gen. al-Mansouri, a former commander of the Sebha Military Zone, had headed military intelligence since May 2024 and was a close associate of Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who controls Cyrenaica.
Libya is effectively divided politically between the Tripolitanian west and Cyrenaican east. In Tripolitania, the Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who has been in office since 2021 and is internationally recognized, controls the capital and much of the country’s west. The government must nevertheless contend with pressure from local militias, including the Al-Samoud Brigade, as well as protests linked to the crisis in public services, power outages and the management of oil revenues.
In Cyrenaica, meanwhile, the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF/LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, operate with his son Saddam Haftar serving as deputy commander and an emerging figure in the succession. Haftar supports parallel institutions, including the House of Representatives (HoR) and the Government of National Stability, and controls eastern Libya and much of the south.
(L.M.) (Fides News Agency, 11/8/2026)
