Forces loyal to Libya’s internationally recognised government have for the first time carried out air strikes on targets in the third largest city of Misrata, which is allied to an armed group that seized the capital in the summer.

A fire at an oil storage tank at Libya’s Es Sider oil port has spread to two more tanks, officials said on Friday.

Fourteen soldiers guarding a power plant 30 kilometres outside Sirte were shot dead in the early hours of this morning.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein has warned all parties involved in the fighting in Libya that abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law are criminally liable and that the situation in Libya is under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Libya, torn by a growing political divide that threatens to engulf its oilfields, could become the next Syria if it does not patch its divided government and get help battling Islamic militants, the country’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, according to Reuters news agency.

قتل 5 من عناصر الجيش الليبي فجر الاثنين 22 ديسمبر/كانون الثاني في هجوم لمجموعات متطرفة على بوابة أمنية في منطقة الظهر الحمر في وادي بالضحاك جنوب شرقي درنة.

Clashes on Monday between pro-government forces and Islamist militiamen in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi killed 16 people and wounded dozens, security sources and medics said.

The Libyan Observatory for Human Rights (LOHR) has expressed “deep concern” that ever greater numbers of Libyans under the age of 18 are being recruited into the ranks of the country’s militias.

United Nations : The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said that it is encouraged by the positive response it has received to its invitation for a UN-convened Libyan political dialogue.

Libya Dawn troops, under the name Operation Sunrise, say they have have made “a strategic retreat” of a few kilometres to protect the oil facilities from being bombed by opposition forces.