By Benoît Faucon
An attack on a central Libyan oil field has left four people
dead and appeared to be the work of radical Islamist fighters
targeting Western interests, Libyan officials said Wednesday.
The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, comes days after an
assault on an upscale hotel in Tripoli that killed nine people. A
group calling itself Islamic State-Tripoli Province claimed
responsibility for the hotel attack, raising fears that terrorists
targeting Westerners were becoming part of the fabric of violence
in war-torn Libya. An American was among the victims in that
attack.
No group has publicly claimed responsibility for Tuesday's
attack at the Mabruk oil field.
Libyan officials said the attack on the facility was well
coordinated, coming from three different directions. The gunmen
used the word "kuffar" to describe non-Muslims, the officials said,
language that is common among radical Islamic militants but not
among more moderate religious groups.
"It's your punishment for working with the 'kuffar,'" one
perpetrator shouted during the attack, according to a Libyan
official briefed on the incident. Officials briefed on the incident
said some of the attackers spoke Arabic with a foreign accent.
"The attackers rounded up staff...and gave them a long lecture
about Islam," said another official who works at the joint-venture
operating the field. The joint-venture is owned by Libya's National
Oil Co. and France's Total SA.
The four victims were guarding the entrance to the oil field
when gunmen stormed the facility and shot them, the joint-venture
official said.
"They were killed immediately," he said, adding the gunmen also
seized satellite phones at the facility. Total confirmed the attack
but didn't comment on the casualties.
The violence underscores the chaos that is gripping Libya as
rival factions vie for control of its vital oil industry. On the
same day, there was renewed fighting near Libya's largest oil port,
pitting Libya Dawn, a more moderate Islamist group that controls
the capital, Tripoli, against a secular-oriented regime based in
the eastern city of Tobruk.
The country has been unstable since longtime leader Moammar
Gadhafi was killed in a popular uprising in 2011. The unrest has
reduced the country's oil exports and created tens of thousands of
refugees.
Total has jointly operated the Mabruk field since 1994, and it
once produced between 30,000 to 40,000 barrels of oil a day.
Production was shut down in December because of safety concerns,
and all French expatriates were evacuated at the time.
The status of the facility wasn't known on Wednesday.
Inti Landauro contributed to this article.
Write to Benoît Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com
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