Image copyright Reuters Image caption Smoke and broken windows were visible at the National Oil Corporation (NOC) building.

An armed group has stormed the Tripoli headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Libya.

Security forces clashed with the armed men at the landmark building in the centre of the city, and blasts and gunfire could be heard, witnesses say.

A security official at the site said at least two staff members and two gunmen have been killed in the attack.

Last week, the UN announced that a truce between warring militias had been agreed in the capital.

A UN-backed government is nominally in power in Tripoli but militias occupy much of the rest of the country.

A member of staff, who said he had jumped out of a window to flee, told Reuters news agency three or five gunmen were shooting inside the building and several people had been shot.

The NOC chairman, Mustafa Sanallah, has been safely evacuated, a witness quoted by Reuters added.

Rescue services are at the scene to treat the wounded coming out of the building.

"The death toll so far is two killed from NOC staff and two attackers," said Ahmad Ben Salim, spokesman for the Special Deterrence Force (Rada) force, according to Reuters.

It is not yet clear who carried out the attack.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The NOC has been a rare source of stability amid years of chaos

Libya's oil sector, which is central to the economy, has been repeatedly disrupted by violence since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011.

Earlier this month, there were clashes between rival armed groups, and Tripoli has also seen occasional militant attacks.

The recent violence has forced thousands of people to flee to nearby towns or seek shelter in other parts of the capital, while many more remain trapped inside their homes.

In May, the Islamic State group claimed a deadly attack on the national election commission offices in the capital.

A blow to the state's money-maker

Analysis by Rana Jawad, BBC News North Africa correspondent

This attack will send shockwaves throughout Libya; not because it was unexpected, but rather for what it symbolises.

The NOC represents the core of what has kept Libya afloat over the last seven years of anarchic rule and prevented it from being branded as a failed state - it is the state's money-maker.

The National Oil Corporation in Tripoli is the only internationally recognized oil body - they have consistently been the only institution that is in control of global oil sales from the conflict-ridden country. But like other government institutions, it has not been immune from the divisive, internal regional politics that has come to define Libya over the years.

It too has a parallel - but paralysed - rival in the East of the country. However, the head of the NOC, Mustafa Sanalla, who was rescued in today's attack, managed to find allies in armed groups where even the government has failed.

His relationship with East Libya's armed forces, which has had its ups and downs, has largely allowed the NOC to keep the oil and gas flowing from most parts of Libya despite the chaos and insecurities.</s>A group of armed men on Monday attacked the Libyan state-owned National Oil Corporation headquarters in the capital Tripoli, security sources told EFE, leaving an unspecified number of victims.

At least two of the gunmen had committed suicide, according to Ahmad Salem, the spokesperson for the Special Deterrence Force, a militia controlled by the interior ministry of the Government of National Accord, the United Nations-backed interim government in Tripoli.</s>An armed group is reported to have stormed the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Libya's capital, Tripoli.

Security forces clashed with the armed men at the landmark building in the centre of the city, and several blasts and gunfire could be heard, witnesses say.

Last week, the UN announced a truce between warring militias had been agreed in the capital.

A UN-backed government is nominally in power in Tripoli.

However, militias occupy much of the rest of the country.
• Why is Libya so lawless?
• Is it possible to hold elections in Libya?

An NOC member of staff, who said he had jumped out of a window to flee, told Reuters news agency three or five gunmen were shooting inside the building and several people had been shot.

The NOC chairman, Mustafa Sanallah, has been safely evacuated, a witness quoted by Reuters added.

Rescue services are at the scene to treat the wounded coming out of the building.

It is not yet clear who carried out the attack.

Libya's oil sector, which is central to the economy, has been repeatedly disrupted by violence since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011.

Earlier this month, there were clashes between rival armed groups, and Tripoli has also seen occasional militant attacks.

The recent violence has forced thousands of people to flee to nearby towns or seek shelter in other parts of the capital, while many more remain trapped inside their homes.

In May, the Islamic State group claimed a deadly attack on the national election commission offices in the capital.</s>Security forces and armed men are reported to have clashed at the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Libya's capital, Tripoli.

An armed group is said to have stormed the building, and several blasts and gunfire could be heard, witnesses say.

Last week, the UN announced a truce between warring militias had been agreed in the capital.

A UN-backed government is nominally in power in Tripoli.

However, militias occupy much of the rest of the country.
• Why is Libya so lawless?
• Is it possible to hold elections in Libya?

An NOC member of staff, who said he had jumped out of a window to flee, told Reuters news agency three or five gunmen were shooting inside the building and several people had been shot.

The NOC chairman, Mustafa Sanallah, has been safely evacuated, a witness quoted by Reuters added.

Rescue services are at the scene to treat the wounded coming out of the building.

It is not yet clear who carried out the attack.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.</s>related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

7 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

Several armed men attacked the headquarters of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) in the capital Tripoli on Monday, killing at least two staff members, a security official said.

TRIPOLI: Several armed men attacked the headquarters of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) in the capital Tripoli on Monday, killing at least two staff members, a security official said.

In the first attack of its kind against the top managers of Libya's state oil industry, two of the gunmen were also killed and at least 10 NOC staff wounded, officials said.

Security forces said they had regained control of the landmark glass-fronted building in the centre of the city.

The attack came less than a week after a fragile truce halted fierce clashes between rival armed groups in Tripoli, the latest eruption of violence in Libya, which has been in turmoil since a 2011 uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

Armed groups regularly block oilfields to make demands but the NOC headquarters had so far been spared the violence.

The NOC provides the vast bulk of Libya's state income and, along with the Tripoli-based central bank, is one of the only state institutions still functioning well amid chaos.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday's attack. But the interior ministry said in a statement initial indications showed the gunmen belonged to Islamic State, which has previously carried out attacks in Tripoli and other Libyan towns and cities.

Gunfire rang out in the morning as security forces allied to the Tripoli-based government arrived.

"The death toll so far is two killed from NOC staff and two attackers," said Ahmad Ben Salim, spokesman for the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), one of the most powerful factions in Tripoli.

Security forces smashed windows so staff could escape and several people were hurt by shattered glass, witnesses said. NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla and his office manager were seen safely leaving the building.

Libya has been divided between rival governments and military factions based in the east and west of the country since 2014, causing political deadlock and an economic crisis.

However, the NOC has continued to function relatively normally across Libya, which relies on oil exports for most of its income. Oil production has been hit by attacks on oil facilities and blockades, though last year it partially recovered to around one million barrels per day.

Islamist militants have sleeper cells in northern cities as well as mobile units in Libya's southern desert, according to Libyan and Western officials.

In May, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the national election commission offices in Tripoli. The group also claimed an attack in 2015 on the Corinthia hotel, a landmark location in Tripoli.

The NOC attack came a day after the United Nations said major armed factions had agreed to freeze their positions to extend the ceasefire.</s>Armed men have stormed the headquarters of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Tripoli, where a blast and gunfire were heard, according to officials and witnesses.

Six gunmen attacked the building on Monday, Interior Minister Brigadier General Abdul Salam Ashour told the Associated Press news agency, and have taken several people hostage.

"Our forces will go in and rescue the hostages," Ashour said.

At least one explosion rocked the building soon after the gunmen went in, starting a fire that swiftly spread through the lower floors, according to the officials.

Photos posted on social media show firefighters trying to evacuate people from the building's top floors, and wounded people being carried away from the scene.

The head of the company, Mustafa Sanallah, told a Libyan television channel that explosions and an exchange of gunfire between the attackers and the building's security guards have caused an unspecified number of deaths and injuries.

"The building was heavily damaged due to the fire. Smoke is everywhere," Sanallah said. "The gunmen attacked the lower floors with random shooting and explosions. It's a very violent attack."

Ahmed Ben Salem, a spokesperson for al-Redaa, an armed group that operates as Tripoli's police force, said the security forces were looking for the gunmen, but their "priority is to evacuate the civilians stuck inside".

An NOC staff who said he jumped out of a window to flee told Reuters that "several people were shot" during the attack.

No group has so far claimed the attack.

Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, said there was a "state of panic" following the attack.

The special forces say their people have managed to get into the building and rescue many employees," he said.

"The masked men were armed with automatic rifles and stormed the main gate of the building. They shot at the security guards and used hand grenades," he said, citing security officials.

The attack on Monday came less than a week after a fragile truce suspended fierce clashes between rival armed groups in Tripoli, the latest eruption of violence in Libya, which has been in turmoil since a 2011 uprising.

In May, fighters affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group claimed a deadly attack on the national election commission offices in Tripoli.

The group had also claimed an attack in 2015 on the Corinthia hotel, a landmark location in Tripoli.</s>BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Libya’s U.N.-backed government says gunmen have stormed the headquarters of the country’s national oil company in the capital Tripoli and taken hostages.

Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Abdul-Salam Ashour says the attack by six gunmen took place Monday while employees were inside the building. He believes there are casualties from an exchange of gunfire between the attackers and the building’s security guards.

“Our forces will go in and rescue the hostages,” Ashour said.

Monday’s attack followed recent fighting in Tripoli between rival armed groups, which left at least 61 people dead. A cease-fire has been in place since last week.

Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that overthrew dictator Moammar Gadhafi and led to his death. It is now governed by rival authorities in Tripoli and the country’s east.</s>Gunmen stormed the headquarters of Libya’s national oil company in Tripoli on Monday, setting off explosions, taking hostages and spraying gunfire, leaving several people dead or wounded before forces aligned with the government took control of the building. The identity and motives of the assailants were not clear.

The oil company said two of its employees had been killed, and there were reports of two gunmen killed, putting the total number of dead at four. But an employee who escaped the assault said he believed that as many as six people had been killed, including three of the assailants.

The attack follows a month of escalating violence among rival militias competing for control of Tripoli, the capital, where a United Nations-backed government has its headquarters but remains largely powerless. Last week, clashes killed more than 60 people.

Any attack on the national oil company is significant because petroleum is the lifeblood of the Libyan economy, and competition for control of the country’s vast oil reserves is at the heart of the often violent struggle for power there.

Cuts in oil revenue because of the fighting have driven Libya into a severe financial crisis, with the government failing to meet the public payrolls, long lines forming at banks, and inflation soaring.

The employee who escaped, Baha Elddin, said in an interview that six men armed with “machine guns” had fought their way into the building. Three had blown themselves up, he said, and three others had climbed the stairs to the upper floors.

Elddin said that local militia fighters had responded to the incursion by besieging the building and that their gunfire may have caused the most casualties. “They started shooting at the assailants inside while the assailants threw grenades down on them from the second floor,” Elddin said in a telephone interview. “I think that most injuries happened because the respondents were shooting in.”

On Facebook, a government-aligned militia described the assault as a “terrorist attack” and the assailants as “suicide bombers.”

Speaking in the early afternoon in Tripoli, Mr. Elddin said that the battle had ended with as many as 10 employees injured, and that it was unclear whether the three assailants who had climbed the stairs had escaped from the scene. He and the militia both described the attackers as dark-skinned, suggesting they could be from ethnic groups native to Libya or from other African countries.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The chairman of the state oil company, Mustafa Sanallah, escaped unharmed, and experts said it was unlikely that the attack would directly affect Libya’s oil production. But the events demonstrated that the country’s oil infrastructure remains vulnerable.

“It’s a reminder that the country remains at risk,” said Riccardo Fabiani, a geopolitical analyst at Energy Aspects, a market research firm. “There is still a backdrop of violence and instability that could again cut production at anytime in the future.”

Libya has descended into chaos in the seven years since the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The United Nations and Western powers have tried to set up a government based in Tripoli that might be able to unify the country.

But so far, power in Tripoli and Western Libya remains divided among rival local or Islamist militias. A would-be strongman, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, dominates the Eastern area around Benghazi, thanks in part to the backing of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had controlled its own beachhead around the coastal city of Sirte until it was driven out by Western airstrikes and local militias in 2016. Many of its fighters have fled into the sparsely populated desert regions. They occasionally stage terrorist attacks on institutions of the rival governments backed by the United Nations and General Hifter, including a similar assault last spring on an election commission.

Several parties agreed in May to hold elections in December for a president and a Parliament. How and by whom that vote might be conducted and secured remains to be determined, and the recent fighting in Tripoli underscores the scale of the challenge.

Analysts say the National Oil Corporation has managed to remain neutral amid the turmoil. It has increased production — which fell to almost nothing after war broke out in 2011 — to around one million barrels a day.

That is still significantly below prewar output, but analysts say that under current circumstances, it is probably close to the maximum Libya can produce. Oil producing centers, pipelines and export terminals around the country are vulnerable to attack.

Monday’s assault comes at a time of growing concerns about global oil supplies. As the Trump administration tries to cut off Iranian exports, they have declined to around two million a day in August from about 2.7 million barrels a day in May, and they are expected to drop to 1.5 million a day in September, according to Energy Aspects. Venezuela’s output continues to decline amid political chaos and economic collapse.

“Too many market participants are way too complacent about Libya,” said Helima Croft, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

“We are one major supply outage away from a super spike,” she added, referring to much higher prices. – New York Times</s>An armed group has stormed the Tripoli headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Libya.

Security forces clashed with the armed men at the landmark building in the centre of the city, and blasts and gunfire could be heard, witnesses say.

A security official at the site said at least two staff members and two gunmen have been killed in the attack. Last week, the UN announced that a truce between warring militias had been agreed in the capital.

A UN-backed government is nominally in power in Tripoli but militias occupy much of the rest of the country.

A member of staff, who said he had jumped out of a window to flee, told Reuters news agency three or five gunmen were shooting inside the building and several people had been shot.

The NOC chairman, Mustafa Sanallah, has been safely evacuated, a witness quoted by Reuters added.

Rescue services are at the scene to treat the wounded coming out of the building.

“The death toll so far is two killed from NOC staff and two attackers,” said Ahmad Ben Salim, spokesman for the Special Deterrence Force (Rada) force, according to Reuters. It is not yet clear who carried out the attack.

Libya’s oil sector, which is central to the economy, has been repeatedly disrupted by violence since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011.

Earlier this month, there were clashes between rival armed groups, and Tripoli has also seen occasional militant attacks. The recent violence has forced thousands of people to flee to nearby towns or seek shelter in other parts of the capital, while many more remain trapped inside their homes.

In May, the Islamic State group claimed a deadly attack on the national election commission offices in the capital. (BBC)</s>TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Several armed men attacked the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in the Libyan capital on Monday and several blasts could be heard, a Reuters witness said.

Gunfire could be heard as a security force allied to the Tripoli-based government arrived at the landmark building located in central Tripoli.

“Three or five gunmen were shooting inside the building,” an NOC staff told Reuters after he said he had jumped out of a window to flee. “Several people were shot.”

No claim of attack was immediately made as firefighters and ambulances arrived to treat wounded streaming out of the building.

The NOC building is covered mainly in glass, and a witness said several people had been wounded by shattered windows.

Security force were smashing windows so staff could escape, witnesses said.

Smoke could be seen rising as security forces took up positions around the offices in central Tripoli and surrounding roads were cordoned off.

A Reuters witness saw ambulances leaving the site. A member of staff from a hotel next to the NOC offices said he had heard about five blasts.

Tripoli was shaken by clashes between rival armed groups at the beginning of this month but the capital has also seen occasional militant attacks.

In May, Islamic State claimed a deadly attack on the national election commission offices in Tripoli.

The group had also claimed an attack in 2015 on the Corinthia hotel, a landmark location in Tripoli.
Gunmen storm the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Tripoli, Libya. At least four people are killed.