A burning tank in Zawiya, a car bomb in Benghazi: two sides of Libya
Sequential strikes hit Libya's largest operating refinery west of Tripoli while Haftar's intelligence chief was killed in Benghazi; no perpetrators were publicly named.
Geopolitics··Midday
Three targets in three days at the Zawiya refinery
According to Al Jazeera, a gasoline storage tank hit on Monday evening collapsed at the Zawiya refinery, 40 km west of Tripoli. The National Oil Corporation said tank 402-T, holding about 4.5 million litres of gasoline, collapsed completely. The plant, with a capacity of 120,000 barrels a day, is described as Libya's largest operating refinery. The corporation warned it would have to declare force majeure and suspend operations if the attacks continue. The Ambulance and Emergency Service reported no serious injuries; most of those treated had inhaled smoke. The corporation said a naphtha reservoir was struck on Saturday, a water desalination plant on Sunday and the gasoline tank on Monday evening. No group claimed the attack and the corporation did not publicly identify the perpetrators. Western energy infrastructure is therefore in the news after storage and support facilities were hit on three successive days. The plant's size and the force majeure warning show that the strikes carry a risk signal for oil flows, not only a local fire story. Uncertainty over the attackers shifts the focus from who struck toward how exposed the infrastructure remains.[1]
An intelligence chief assassinated in Benghazi
In the east the picture points to a different kind of security exposure. According to a Libyan security official who spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity, an improvised explosive device planted under Maj. Gen. Fawzi al-Mansouri's vehicle detonated as he was getting into the car. The attack took place outside al-Mansouri's home in Benghazi's al-Sayyida Aisha neighbourhood; the official described it as a terrorist attack. No official statement was issued. Al-Mansouri had commanded the Sabha Military Zone since August 2021 and was appointed to the intelligence post by Khalifa Haftar on 20 May 2024. Anadolu Agency also cites a Reuters report, based on security sources, saying the device detonated in his car; no group claimed responsibility. The military intelligence chief of the eastern forces has therefore been removed by an assassination without a publicly named perpetrator. Anonymity and the lack of an official statement narrow the public confirmation chain, yet the overlapping Anadolu Agency and Reuters accounts leave a shared core: the car was targeted and al-Mansouri was killed. The killing in Benghazi of an intelligence figure appointed by Haftar shows exposure even at the centre of the eastern security apparatus.[2]
Two exposed faces of divided power
The two events sit side by side in the same day's news flow without pointing to one armed group or a single command centre. In the west, Zawiya hits the energy spine near Tripoli; in the east, Benghazi targets the top of an intelligence hierarchy tied to Haftar. On one side stand the National Oil Corporation's force majeure warning and a three-day strike sequence; on the other, an unnamed security source, an assassination without an official statement and no claim of responsibility. Together they make Libya's divided power landscape visible through two concrete exposures: the failure to protect oil infrastructure and the failure of the eastern security apparatus to protect its own officers. The absence of any claim of responsibility, for both Zawiya and Benghazi, gives readers the same caution: the public chain of accountability is weak, so the political meaning of the events remains partly open. The facts the sources report are still clear: the largest operating refinery was damaged in successive drone strikes and the eastern military intelligence chief was killed in Benghazi.[1], [2]
