Gunmen stormed on Wednesday the al-Mabrook oil field in central Libya, the latest oil facility hit by violence in the North African country, leaving 12 people killed.
Gunmen stormed on Wednesday the al-Mabrook oil field in central Libya, the latest oil facility hit by violence in the North African country, leaving 12 people killed, a Libyan official said Wednesday.
Two Filipinos and two Ghanaians were among the victims.
"Most were beheaded or killed by gunfire," said Abdelhakim Maazab, commander of a security force in charge of protecting the al-Mabrook oil field, about 100 miles south of the Mediterranean city of Surt.
Maazab added that his men had regained control of the field, which used to pump 40,000 barrels a day but is not operating now. The French energy company Total has a stake in the site, but it is contracted to a Libyan company.
A French diplomatic source in Paris said no French citizens were among the dead.
The Filipinos worked for an Italian company, Sogepi S.r.l., according to a statement earlier Wednesday by the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs. It reported three of its citizens as among seven foreigners who had been “abducted by unidentified armed men.”
Details of the attack, which occurred Tuesday night, were difficult to determine. Two rival governments control different parts of the country, each with their own armies.
Rival armed factions have also been fighting for almost two months for control of Libya’s biggest oil ports, Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, on the Mediterranean coast.
The al-Mabrook oil field closed after clashes that shut Es Sider in December. Total said it had had no personnel onshore since July.
The French diplomatic source and Ali al-Hassi, a spokesman for an oil guard force, blamed militants claiming links to the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) terrorist organization for the attack.
ISIL is a takfiri armed group which occupies parts of Syria and Iraq and carries out terrorist attacks in various Arab lands.
ISIL-affiliate militants claimed an attack on a luxury hotel last week in Tripoli, killing at least nine people.
