Major Libyan oil plant ablaze as rebellions erupt in Tripoli after Friday prayer

[cavegal]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362962/Major-Libyan-oil-plant-ablaze-rebellions-erupt-Tripoli-Friday-prayers.html

    * Almost HALF the country's 1.6million barrel a day oil output knocked out
    * Fierce fighting raged in five towns and cities after Friday prayers

A major Libyan oil plant was ablaze last night as fresh fighting raged across the country leaving at least 50 dead – including 30 civilians and two rebel commanders.

It is unclear whether the facility in the port area of Zueitina, south of the rebel-held city of Benghazi, was deliberately set on fire or whether the blaze was triggered in battles.

Flames and clouds of black smoke engulfed the oil terminal, which can produce 500,000 barrels a day.

It is the first time Libyan oil facilities have been hit – one fear is that Colonel Gaddafi will use warplanes to destroy oilfields and terminals in rebel-held areas, mirroring the tactics used by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1991 as his troops withdrew from Kuwait.

[cavegal]

Gaddafi's scorched earth: Libya's skies turn black as desperate dictator blows up oil pipes and turns his tanks on civilians

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1364469/Gaddafi-blows-Libyas-oil-pipes-tanks-turned-civilians.html

Colonel Gaddafi's forces today blasted an oil terminal to smithereens as Libya's bloody civil war entered its blackest day.

Rebels retaliated by firing back with rockets as a fireball exploded from one of the oil tanks and the sky above the Es Sider terminal, in the east of the country, filled with hideous smoke.

A witness said one of the smoke plumes was the biggest he had seen in the conflict so far.

The fresh onslaught came as Gaddafi deployed tanks and snipers to 'shoot anything that moves'.
Forces loyal to the Libyan dictator poured into the city of Zawiyah in a desperate bid to oust the hardcore band of protesters and army defectors who have taken control

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More photos at link.