Brig Fawzi Al Mansouri Killed In Benghazi Car Bomb As Drones Hit Zawiya Refinery

The head of military intelligence for Lt Gen Khalifa Haftar's forces in eastern Libya, Brig Fawzi Al Mansouri, was killed when an explosive device detonated in his car outside his home in Benghazi in the Hawari area on Monday evening, according to security sources cited by Reuters.

“Brig Fawzi Al Mansouri, eastern Libya's chief of military intelligence, was killed in the blast”

The National

A separate series of drone attacks targeted critical oil infrastructure in western Libya, including a strike at the Zawiya refinery about 40km west of Tripoli that hit a fuel storage tank and triggered a fire that eventually caused the tank to collapse.

Al Jazeera

Libya's oil ministry said the tank contained about 4.5 million litres of gasoline, while the National Oil Corporation warned that continued attacks could force it to halt operations.

The Zawiya refinery is Libya's largest operating refinery with capacity of 120,000 barrels per day, and it is connected to the country's 300,000-barrel-per-day Sharara oilfield.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, and Libyan authorities did not publicly identify a suspected perpetrator.

Libya's National Oil Corporation said on Tuesday it could declare force majeure and completely halt operations at the Zawiya refinery if drone attacks on oil assets in the city continued, after reporting a third such attack over Sunday and Monday.

Reuters said the latest drone targeted an oil blending and filling plant operated by the Zawiya Oil Refining Company, falling near its main oil tank and a pipeline network used to produce oils for the domestic market.

Anadolu Ajansı

Al Jazeera reported that the fire broke out on Monday evening at tank number 402-T, belonging to the Brega Oil Company, and said the tank was "directly targeted, resulting in a severe fire before the tank completely collapsed".

Al Jazeera also quoted the NOC warning that "if these attacks continue, it will have to declare a state of force majeure and suspend operations at the refinery".

The attacks came after drone strikes on a water desalination plant at the refinery on Sunday and on a naphtha reservoir on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera.

The drone attacks threaten not only infrastructure but also domestic fuel supplies in a country already vulnerable to shortages and disruptions, with the violence unfolding against Libya's unresolved political and military division.

“The attacks threaten not only infrastructure but also domestic fuel supplies”

The National

The National Oil Corporation said the attacks were the latest in a series targeting Zawiya's oil infrastructure, and it reported three attacks had struck oil assets over Sunday and Monday.

Al Jazeera said the Tripoli-based government stated Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah held a meeting earlier in the day with key officials, including the interior minister and the chiefs of some armed groups in the capital, "to follow up on the latest security developments."

Al Jazeera also reported that the House of Representatives’ Energy and Natural Resources Committee condemned the attack and called for stronger protection of oil installations, saying it was "one of the most vital facilities in the oil and gas sector that is a cornerstone of the national economy."

With rival administrations vying for power—Dbeibah's Government of National Unity in Tripoli and Khalifa Haftar's aligned forces in the east—Libya remains divided despite a 2020 ceasefire that halted major warfare.