Only one day after news from Benghazi indicating some kind of normalization in the capital of the one Libyan government that enjoys recognition by an international community, there is renewed fighting between militias belonging to the opposing governments in Benghazi and Tripoli. This time it's about military control of the border crossing to Tunisia at Ras Jdir.
اخبار ليبيا 13-12-2014 العاجلة الان
اعادة فتح اقسام وسجون مدينة بنغازي الليبية للمرة الاولي منذ اكثر من عام
Libya News from December 13, 2014, at local time:
Reopening of offices and prisons in the Libyan town
of Benghazi for the first time since more than a year.
[Source: Watny Net جريدة وطني الأخبارية on December 13, 2014]
[Quotation of today's news report published by Reuters,
including some clarifying annotations made by Ulysses.]
" Tripoli / Tunis - Fighting between armed factions allied to Libya's competing governments broke out on Sunday [i.e. December 14] near the country's main border crossing to Tunisia, Libyan and Tunisian officials said.
The OPEC oil producer is caught in a conflict between two governments and parliaments since a group called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli in the summer.
The recognized government has been forced to work out of the east [from Benghazi]. In recent weeks it has sought to regain ground in the west with air strikes and the use of allied troops from the Zintan area who are calling themselves the Libyan National Army (LNA).
Omar al-Sanki, interior minister of the recognized government, said his forces had seized the western Ras Jdir border crossing, the main gateway into Tunisia.
But a Libyan border official and the mayor of Zuwara, a town east of Ras Jdir, denied this.
"Our forces...are still in control of Ras Jdir and it is not true that the borders have been taken by the army of tribes -LNA," said the mayor, Hafed Juma.
He said war planes belonging to the eastern-based government had attacked their positions, killing four people.
A Tunisian security source said there was fighting in the Libyan area of Boukamech near Ras Jdir. The border station was open, though Tunisia had advised its citizens to avoid the crossing. [A news report from Al-Arabiya and which appeared later today is indicating that Ras Jdir border station has now been definitely closed.]
In another setback for travelers, two Libyan state carriers said they had halted flights out of Tripoli and Misrata to Istanbul after the European Union imposed an overfly ban last week.
Egypt and Tunisia had already banned flights from western Libya, leaving Libyans with few options to travel abroad.
Western powers fear the conflict between former rebels who helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 will spiral out of control.
On Saturday a force allied to the Tripoli government tried taking the eastern Es Sider oil export port, triggering air strikes from the eastern government and a shutdown of the terminal. "
[Source: Reuters on December 14, 2014]
For more news refer to a related article, published on the same day of December 14 by The Financial Times: Civil war threatens Libya’s eastern oil facilities
Recent visitors to "blueprint news" coming from Benghazi and Tripoli.
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