An oil tanker was bombed on Sunday by Libya’s government airplanes while anchored to offload fuel cargo at a terminal near the city of Sirte, controlled by Islamist leaders.
One person was killed and another injured in the bombing that saw the tanker Anwaar Afriqya burst into flames, the Libya News Agency reported.
The 30,000 litres of fuel, originating from Greece, were intended for a power station near Sirte.
However, the warplanes are believed to have targeted the tanker under suspicion that it was carrying fighters loyal to the rival government based in Tripoli, Bloomberg informed, citing Rida Issa, head of central Libya’s coastguard unit.
“Our jets warned an unflagged ship off Sirte city, but it ignored the warning,” the eastern air force commander Saqer al-Joroushi told Reuters.
The 2004-built Anwaar Afriqya is registered in Libya and features 34,648 DWT. The tanker is owned by Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC).
According to the latest vessel tracking data by Marine Traffic, the vessel is stopped and remains in the vicinity of Sirte.
Reuters source said that the fire was extinguished late in the evening.
This is not the first time the tanker got caught in the middle of the political strife between the two sides in Libya.
Namely, in Janury Anwaar Afriqya was diverted by the country’s internationally recognized government under a threat of air attacks, and prevented from delivering 24,000 tonnes of fuel to the rival administration at the port of Misrata.
The tanker was released after an inspection revealed that it had no weapons on board.
This is the third attack by the internationally recognized government on oil tankers in the region.
World Maritime News Staff