Skip to main content

Libya burns, world ignores it

Rival militia groups are engaged in increasingly bloody fighting, and fires rage in central Tripoli, but the world's powers have no interest in putting out the fires or halting the violence.
A damaged building is pictured after clashes between rival militias, in an area at Alswani road in Tripoli July 28, 2014. A rocket hit a fuel storage tank in a chaotic battle for Tripoli airport that has all but closed off international flights to Libya, leaving fire-fighters struggling to extinguish a giant conflagration. Two rival brigades of former rebels fighting for control of Tripoli International Airport have pounded each other's positions with Grad rockets, artillery fire and cannons for two weeks,

Tripoli is in flames. A large fire that started July 27 during fighting between rival militias on the city's central airport road now engulfs two major fuel tanks and has continued to spread while the body count ticks upward.

Not only are Tripoli's few firefighters, who must brave what is effectively a war zone to do their job, making little progress, but bullets continue to hit the huge storage facility of the Brega Oil and Gas Co. The fires were so large that at their peak they were visible on satellite images.

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.