Libya asks for help to put out blaze at oil terminal, cites terror hand

The blaze which broke out in Libya’s eastern oil terminal Thursday has spread to five storage facilities nearby. Omar al-Snaki, interior minister of the Tobruk parliament-backed government, said Sunday that the storage facilities were “targeted by the Dawn of Libya terrorist militias.” He called on the envoys of the US, Italy, Egypt and Germany for urgent help to put out the fire.

DEBKAfile adds: Those militias are allied with al Qaeda, which Libyan officials visiting Cairo warned Sunday were reaching out to grab Libya’s oil facilities. Intervention by the US, Italy and Germany is hardly likely. But Cairo may step in to prevent the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has established a base in eastern Libya, from spilling across the border and posing a major security threat to Egypt.