One step forward, two back in Libya

An IS attack on the Tripoli HQ of Libya’s battered oil industry has presented the sector with its sternest test yet

Two suicide bombers fought their way into the National Oil Corporation's (NOC) glass-fronted downtown headquarters in Tripoli on 10 September, spraying corridors with gunfire and killing two staff, with another 10 wounded. NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanallah escaped from the building during the fighting, which saw both terrorists killed. He later issued a statement underlining the vulnerability of the industry to a terrorist onslaught: "This attack did not cause a loss of production. However, it led to the shedding of Libyan blood. This attack is indicative of the weakness and fragility of the security arrangements in the country." The attack came hard on the heels of nine days of fighting that ra