Rival army forces—one loyal to the UN-backed Libyan government and another to a strongman from the east— are fighting for control over Libya’s largest oil field, Sharara, which has been shut in for two months after it was occupied by an armed group in early December. Last month, forces loyal to eastern strongman General Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) said that they had started a military operation to secure oil sites and facilities in Libya’s south, where Sharara is located. Then earlier this week, a unit of forces loyal to Libya’s UN-backed government in Tripoli was sent south to secure the Sharara oil field. A unit of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) of the Libyan government of national accord, supported by the United Nations, is heading to Sharara, Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV reported on Wednesday. The Sharara oil field has the capacity to pump 340,000 […]