TRIPOLI, 09 Sept. - (ANA) - Libya's UN-recognised government says it has dismantled an organised sabotage cell involving Libyan and foreign nationals allegedly responsible for a string of drone attacks on the country's energy infrastructure.

 

The Government of National Unity (GNU) said on Sunday that five people had been arrested following a security and intelligence operation carried out by the defence ministry.

 

It accused the group of using suicide drones to attack oil storage tanks in Tripoli and the western city of Zawiya, as well as the Zawiya power station.

 

Authorities said the same network had been preparing further attacks, including against the South Tripoli power station, other vital infrastructure and political, security and military figures.

 

The government did not identify the five suspects, reveal the nationalities of those it described as foreigners, or say which groups or states it believes may have supported the alleged cell.

 

It said, however, that its investigation indicated the attacks were not isolated incidents but part of a "broad and interconnected sabotage plot" involving multiple actors and targets.

 

The government said investigations would continue to identify those who planned, financed, supported or facilitated the attacks, promising to disclose the identities of those involved once preliminary investigations are completed.

 

It also vowed to "strike with an iron fist" against anyone found to have participated, regardless of their position or military rank.

 

The announcement could provide the first significant indication of who was behind a mysterious series of drone attacks that struck strategic facilities in western Libya in August.

 

At the time, no group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

 

The GNU's defence ministry alleged on 12 August that the strikes were part of a systematic campaign supported and incited by unspecified "external entities", but provided no evidence publicly identifying those it believed were responsible.

 

 

 

 

Zawiya, around 45 kilometres west of Tripoli, was subjected to repeated drone attacks over several days in August, with oil storage facilities, electricity infrastructure and other strategic sites targeted.

 

The city hosts Libya's largest operating oil refinery, with a capacity of around 120,000 barrels per day, and is a crucial hub for fuel supplies in western Libya.

 

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on 11 August that an explosives-laden drone had struck a diesel tank at the Zawiya oil complex in what it described as the fifth attack on the facility.

 

Earlier strikes caused a tank holding around 4.5 million litres of petrol to catch fire and collapse, while other fuel tanks were also damaged.

 

The repeated attacks forced a partial shutdown at the complex and temporarily disrupted fuel supplies in parts of western Libya.

 

The NOC warned at the height of the attacks that it could declare force majeure and shut down operations at the refinery entirely if the strikes continued.

 

No casualties were reported in the attacks on the oil complex.

 

Electricity infrastructure was also hit.

 

An attack on the South Zawiya substation on 12 August caused a complete outage across large areas south of the city, according to Libya's state electricity company.

 

More than 700 megawatts of the Zawiya power station's 1,300 MW generation capacity were left unavailable following the attack.

 

US company General Electric subsequently suspended its work at the station and withdrew technical teams because of the deteriorating security situation.

 

The attacks highlighted the vulnerability of Libya's critical infrastructure amid continued political fragmentation and competition between rival armed groups.

 

Libya has remained divided between rival authorities and armed factions since the overthrow of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with the GNU controlling Tripoli and much of western Libya while rival authorities dominate the east.

 

Oil facilities have repeatedly become targets or bargaining chips during political and military disputes, although the use of explosive drones against fuel and electricity infrastructure represented a particularly serious escalation.

 

The GNU said its investigation into the cell remains ongoing and that it intends to reveal the wider network behind the attacks once investigators have established the identities of those it says financed, supported and directed the operation.  - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/09 September 2026 - -