Clashes close Libya’s largest oil port; Tunisia seals border

TRIPOLI/TUNIS: Tunisia closed its largest border with Libya as fighting between armed factions allied to Libya’s competing governments broke out on Sunday, Libyan and Tunisian officials said.
Libya’s eastern Es Sider oil export port, the country’s biggest, has been shut due to the fighting.
The OPEC oil producer is caught in a conflict between two governments and parliaments since a group called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli in the summer.
In recent weeks it has sought to regain ground in the west with airstrikes and the use of allied troops from the Zintan area calling themselves the Libyan National Army.
Omar Al-Sanki, interior minister of the recognized government, said his forces had seized the western Ras Jdir border crossing, the main gateway into Tunisia.
But a Libyan border official and the mayor of Zuwara, a town east of Ras Jdir, denied this.
“Our forces...are still in control of Ras Jdir and it is not true that the borders have been taken by the army of tribes -LNA,” said the mayor, Hafed Juma. He said warplanes belonging to the eastern-based government had attacked their positions, killing four people.
A Tunisian security source said there was fighting in the Libyan area of Boukamech near Ras Jdir. The border station was open, though Tunisia had advised its citizens to avoid the crossing.
In another setback for travelers, two Libyan state carriers said they had halted flights out of Tripoli and Misrata to Istanbul after the European Union imposed an overfly ban last week. Egypt and Tunisia had already banned flights from western Libya, leaving Libyans with few options to travel abroad.
Clashes were continuing near Es Sider, Tripoli-based Al-Nabaa television station said on Sunday, adding that a force allied to the government in the capital was at the gates of the terminal.
The Ras Lanuf port east of Es Sider was still operating but the Al-Waha Oil Co. running the Es Sider port had halted work, the official said. A worker said staff had left the site for security reasons. The company had been producing around 200,000 bpd, data from the state-run National Oil Corp. showed earlier this month.
Ibrahim Jathran, head of a petroleum protection force guarding Es Sider and three other eastern oil ports, said his force had repulsed the advance. “We confirm to the Libyan people that their resources are secure and under the protection of their sons,” Jathran told a local television station.