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By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab.
Tripoli, 23 July 2013:
A Grad missile hit one of the petrol tanks at the Brega Oil and Gas Marketing . . .[restrict]Company’s depot on the Airport Road early this morning. Billowing smoke could be seen far into the distance, but fortunately the complex was not blown up as a result.
There would have been massive destruction and loss of life if it had been one of the gas tanks that was hit. However, the fuel tanks have a fire safety system.
It is not known who fired the missile which has a range of up to 60 kilometres, but it is thought to have been done by the militias who attacked the airport. It is highly unlikely that the Zintanis would have fired it. They control the area around the fuel depot and have a major base very near to it. The base may have been the intended target.
Residents in the area behind the tanks are now leaving for fear of further attacks. The missile that hit the depot was not the only one to fall during the night. Another fell further east in the Wadi Al-Rabie district. “We were very scared”, one resident said.
Both sides are using missiles in a fight that is increasingly missile based. Although the Zintanis put out a statement two days ago, saying that they had defeated the airport attackers, another missile hit the airport yesterday and others fell in nearby Gasr Ben Gashir which increasingly resembles a ghost town. Most of its residents have left.
There were sounds of explosions from the Gurji area, Khalat Al-Furjan areas and beyond earlier this morning. The attack on the Airport Road fuel depot could further add to its petrol and cooking gas woes.
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