Drone strike sparks massive blaze at Libya’s Zawiya refinery

Firefighters in western Libya battled to put out the remnants of a massive fire sparked by a drone strike on a oil facility on Tuesday. A car bomb killed a senior military officer in the country's east, adding to the chaos in the North African nation. The drone struck a gasoline tank at the Zawiya oil refinery in a Mediterranean town west of the capital Tripoli on Monday.

The attack ignited a massive blaze that burned through the night into Tuesday morning, according to the Civil Defense agency. No casualties were reported. Responsibility for the drone strike and a series of attacks on oil facilities in Zawiya and a car bomb in Benghazi on Monday have not been claimed. Footage showed flames and fireballs from the tank, with black and orange smoke rising as firefighters attempted to control the intense fire.

Another drone hit near a key oil tank nearby but caused no casualties or damage. The tank, holding 4.5 million liters of fuel when struck, collapsed, and the facility was declared in a state of maximum emergency. These were the latest drone attacks on oil infrastructure in Zawiya, which contains Libya's largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to visit Libya, including both Tripoli and Benghazi, for a visit.