{"id":997223,"date":"2026-08-13T02:07:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T02:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/997223\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T02:07:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T02:07:30","slug":"drone-strike-in-western-libya-torches-power-substation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/997223\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone strike in western Libya torches power substation"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAIRO (AP) \u2014 A drone strike ignited a fire at an electrical substation in western Libya on Wednesday, knocking the facility out of service in the latest of a wave of attacks<\/a> on energy and oil infrastructure that threaten to plunge the country into further chaos.<\/p>\n

The state-run General Electricity Company said in a statement that a power substation in the city of Zawiya<\/a> that links power plants to homes and businesses was completely burned down.<\/p>\n

The city of about 250,000 people has been rattled by a series of drone strikes that hit oil and power facilities. Zawiya is home to critical energy infrastructure, including Libya\u2019s largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant.<\/p>\n

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the drone strikes.<\/p>\n

The attacks come as tensions are rising between the government of Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, who governs western Libya, and warlord Mohamed Bahroun, who controls the city of Zawiya. Much of western Libya is ruled by local militias loosely allied to Dbeibah\u2019s government in Tripoli. <\/p>\n

The country has been divided for years between rival administrations<\/a>, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Dbeibah governs western Libya and the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad governs the eastern part of the country.<\/p>\n

The power company said the attack resulted in outages across southern parts of the city, which is located about 47 kilometers (29 miles) west of the capital Tripoli. Footage shared by the company showed massive flames and fireballs erupting from the facility.<\/p>\n

Dbeibah denounced the attacks on energy and power installations as \u201ca serious crime and an escalation that will not go unanswered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will reach those responsible for this attack, and the accountability will be firm. No one will be protected by their position, status, or influence,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

On Monday, a drone strike hit a fuel-laden tank at Zawiya\u2019s refinery, igniting a massive blaze which firefighters battled for over 15 hours. The refinery was repeatedly attacked over the weekend and on Tuesday, according to the state-run National Oil Corporation.<\/p>\n

The power plant was hit by two drones on Tuesday, with one damaging its firefighting system while the second landed close to the facility\u2019s main fuel storage, setting it on fire, the electricity company said.<\/p>\n

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After Tuesday\u2019s attack on the power plant, the U.S. company General Electric withdrew its teams from the facility \u201cuntil security conditions and a suitable and safe work environment are ensured,\u201d the electricity company said. GE performs maintenance and upgrading services for the plant.<\/p>\n

GE previously withdrew its staff from the plant over security concerns, prolonging the loss of more than 700 megawatts of the station\u2019s production capacity, estimated at 1300 megawatts, the electricity company said.<\/p>\n

The violence came as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Dbeibah and Mohammad Younes Menfi, chairman of the Presidential Council in Tripoli on Tuesday, before traveling Wednesday to the eastern city of Benghazi to meet with powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter.<\/p>\n

Turkey is the main foreign backer of Dbeibah\u2019s government, but in recent years has also reached out to the rival authorities in eastern Libya in an attempt to mend ties, and as part of regional efforts to unify the North African country.<\/p>\n

Libya<\/a>, an oil-rich country on the Mediterranean, has been wracked by conflict since a NATO-backed uprising-turned-civil war toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAIRO (AP) \u2014 A drone strike ignited a fire at an electrical substation in western Libya on Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":997224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[213234,10102,166175,57,104044,398765,7575,213230,8132,398766,399556,50,80,7053,213231,24922,17084,103,107],"class_list":["post-997223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-abdul-hamid-dbeibah","tag-energy-industry","tag-ge-aerospace","tag-general-news","tag-hakan-fidan","tag-khalifa-hifter","tag-libya","tag-libya-government","tag-military-and-defense","tag-mohamed-bahroun","tag-mohammad-younes-menfi","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-power-outages","tag-tripoli","tag-turkey","tag-utilities","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117085762445667154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/997224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=997223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=997223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}