Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 24 January 2015:
Tobruk fuel delivery drivers have gone on strike in protest at the seizure of colleagues driving . . .[restrict]fuel toward Ajdabiya. Some 20,000 b/d of petrol has thus been removed from forecourts which are already struggling to obtain fresh fuel supplies.
A normally reliable source has claimed that at least seven and maybe as many as 25 drivers have been seized in the last 48 hours. All were taken on the B11, the direct inland road between Tobruk and Ajdabiya.
It is unclear who has seized the loaded fuel bowsers and their drivers.
Attacks last year on Egyptian trucks, appear to have been carried out to extract ransoms as well as for common thievery. It is however being suggested that Ansar Al-Sharia may be behind these latest attacks. Beside the economic and security disruption, the terrorist group may itself be struggling to find fuel in its Derna heartland, since the Libyan Airforce has been seeking to stop vessels unloading in the town’s port.
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