Drone attack targets fuel depot in Tripoli, Libya

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) reported an attempted drone attack on the Brega fuel depot in the capital, Tripoli. On Thursday morning, a remote-controlled drone was used against the depot on Airport Road; initial assessment reported no damage, but a state of emergency was declared and crews lowered fuel levels in tanks as a precaution. Subsequently, NOC's affiliate Brega Petroleum Marketing Company detected damage to several pipelines and two tanks following an investigation; it stated a suspicious drone entered the depot's airspace and crashed near a storage tank. No casualties were reported.

NOC characterized the incident as a "dangerous indicator" of attempts to target oil facilities through "sabotage acts" and warned that such attacks pose a "direct threat" to the supply systems of essential services such as electricity generation, health, and industry. No group has claimed responsibility yet. The attack followed a series of drone strikes a month ago in Zawiya, 47 km west of Tripoli; those strikes damaged refinery tanks, destroyed a 4.5 million liter gasoline tank, and hit a desalination plant and power stations. The state oil company had warned it might be forced to halt refinery operations if attacks continued. Conflict monitor ACLED linked the violence to intensifying competition among local militias over land and fuel smuggling.

The attacks further aggravated the situation that triggered protests across Western Libya in July over an electricity crisis. Protesters demanded improved services and the resignation of Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, storming the Mellitah energy complex and temporarily shutting down pipelines supplying gas to power plants. Libya has been divided since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi; Dbeibah's government controls the west, while an administration backed by Khalifa Haftar controls the east. On August 30, representatives of rival camps signed a UN-backed roadmap envisioning presidential and parliamentary elections under a single executive authority within 24 months. Since April, US President Donald Trump's advisor Massad Boulos has also been pushing a power-sharing initiative to resolve Libya's political deadlock.