SAS in Libya ahead of MAJOR offensive to smash jihadis and block route to oil fields

[mick silver]

SAS in Libya ahead of MAJOR offensive to smash jihadis and block route to oil fields

A CRACK team of Special Forces are in Libya preparing the ground for up to 1,000 British troops who have been drafted in to tackle Islamic State (ISIS).

By Tom Batchelor (http://www.express.co.uk/search/Tom+Batchelor?s=Tom+Batchelor&b=1)
PUBLISHED: 17:00, Mon, Jan 4, 2016 | UPDATED: 19:24, Mon, Jan 4, 2016




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The British deployment of half a dozen elite SAS soldiers will form part of a 6,000-strong armyThe jihadi group has sought to expand its influence in the lawless north African state in a bid to seize control of Libya's highly lucrative oil fields.
The British deployment of half a dozen elite SAS soldiers will form part of a 6,000-strong army of Americans and Europeans, led by the Italian army.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon confirmed last month that as many as 1,000 soldiers were being readied for deployment to Libya to deal with the proliferation of ISIS - also known as Daesh - since the toppling of Gaddafi in 2011.
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A major coalition offensive is planned for the coming months, with military chiefs hoping it could finally yield a breakthrough on the depraved terror organisation.
A senior military source told the Daily Mirror: "This Coalition will provide a wide range of resources from surveillance, to strike operations against Islamic State who have made significant progress in Libya.
"We have an advance force on the ground who will make an assessment of the situation and identify where attacks should be made and highlight the threats to our forces."
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The plans are part of a 6,000-strong Italian-led forcehttp://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/590x/secondary/war-428360.jpgGETTY
Fierce fighting has left much of Libya war ravagedIn December, Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, suggested British air strikes could be needed to stop ISIS if it attempted to get hold of valuable oil fields in Libya.
He warned the terror group was shifting to Libya from Syria, where it is already being targeted by international forces including the UK.
Confirmation of the military deployment comes as Islamic State militants attacked the Es Sider oil export terminal, killing two guards and setting an oil storage tank on fire.
The fight against ISIS

Mon, December 28, 2015 The battle against ISIS militants (also abbreviated as Daesh, ISIL, IS and Islamic State) continues in the Middle East, as Iraq forces retake control of the city of Ramadi






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Iraqi security forces raise an Iraqi flag as they retake control of the city of Ramadi from Islamic State





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http://www.express.co.uk/trackings/addview/2974/105/ The tank - said to be holding 420,000 barrels of oil - was hit by a rocket during the fighting, causing a huge fire, and two ISIS suicide car bombers then attacked the area around the port.
Libya descended into chaos after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and rival governments and the militias that support them are fighting for control of the North African state and its energy reserves.
Es Sider and nearby Ras Lanuf oil ports, between Sirte and Benghazi on coast, have been shut for a year.
ISIS has taken advantage of the security vacuum to grab territory and are threatening to advance from Sirte, which it controls.
So far the group has failed to take control of any Libyan oil installations but has done so in Syria.
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Smoke rising from a large fuel depot fire at al-Sidra, Libya, during fighting

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[mick silver]

World | Wed Jan 6, 2016 3:59pm EST Related: World, (http://www.reuters.com/news/world) Libya (http://www.reuters.com/places/libya)
Fires rage at Libyan oil ports after Islamic State attacksBENGHAZI, Libya | By Ayman al-Warfalli





















BENGHAZI, Libya Three days of Islamic State attacks on Libya's biggest oil terminals have started fires that have spread to five massive oil storage tanks, a guards spokesman said on Wednesday.
Ali al-Hassi said the Petroleum Facilities Guards were still in control of the neighboring ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, where at least nine guards were killed and more than 40 injured near the ports' perimeters on Monday and Tuesday.
Hassi said guards had recovered bodies of 30 Islamic State fighters, and had captured two military tanks and other vehicles from the militants.
He also said the guards had received air support from forces loyal to the General National Congress (GNC), the government that has controlled Tripoli since its rival, which was internationally recognized, moved to Bayda in the east in 2014.
Firefighters were trying to control four fires at Es Sider and one at Ras Lanuf. Two were triggered by Islamic State shelling, and three more had caught fire, Hassi said.
Mohamed al-Manfi, an oil official in eastern Libya, said each of the oil tanks was estimated to contain 420,000 to 460,000 barrels of oil.
Es Sider and Ras Lanuf lie between the city of Sirte - about 200 km (125 miles) along the coast and controlled by Islamic State - and the eastern city of Benghazi. They have been closed for more than a year.
Libya is split between political factions and armed groups competing for power and for the country's oil wealth, four years after the revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. Oil output has dwindled to less than one quarter of a 2011 high of 1.6 million barrels per day.
Islamic State has used the security vacuum to expand its presence, though it has not taken control of oil installations in the country.
The militants attacked guards at Es Sider in October, but this week's offensive was a more concerted assault on the ports.
Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Tripoli, said he hoped the violence would "lead political leaders on all sides in Libya to understand the magnitude of the threat we face".
"We need to unite against this common enemy, not tomorrow or next week, but now," he said in a statement.
The NOC also issued a separate statement saying it would do all it could to honor contracts and protect Libya's oil resources.
The U.N. is trying to win support for a deal to form a national unity government in Libya, but the plan has faced resistance from members of the rival parliaments.

[monty]

Did Sarkozy get the 146 tons of gold and silver out of Libya before the militants got control? Murdering thieves. I wonder what Hitlary's cut was? They put ranchers in federal prison for burning weeds and she runs for president.