A Filipino was killed and eight people were wounded when a rocket likely to have targeted a refinery hit the western Libyan town of Zawiya, a Libyan official said yesterday.
Town council head Mohamed Khadrawi said the wounded comprised three Filipinos, one African national and four Libyans.
He said a Grad rocket had hit an area near a car the foreign workers had been travelling in to go home after work.
The Zawiya region has seen fighting between rival factions allied to two governments and parliaments competing for power in a complex struggle in the oil producer involving different tribes, regions, Islamists and more secular forces.
A source from forces allied to the internationally-recognised government based in the east denied claims by some officials in Tripoli – which is controlled by a rival government – that they had fired a Grad in the direction of Zawiya or a nearby 120,000 barrels a day refinery.
Grad rocket hit an area near a car the foreign workers had been travelling in to go home after work
The official government is based in the east after Tripoli was seized by a rival faction in August, reinstating a previous assembly and setting up a rival government.
Both sides have been attacking each other with war planes.
The official government had recently launched a military offensive to “liberate” Tripoli using allied tribesmen.
Meanwhile the Tripoli-based government, which leads one of two warring factions, has ordered its forces to withdraw from bases near major oil ports to fight Islamic State militants in the central city of Sirte, according to a Tripoli lawmaker.
The withdrawal may at some point result in the re-opening of ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, both of which closed in December as both sides battled for their control.
Militants loyal to Islamic State have expanded in Libya, exploiting the security vacuum left by fighting between different parties since an uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
“The withdrawal of the forces is a tactical withdrawal to confront the organisation of the Islamic State ... in Sirte,” Belqasem Debbrez, deputy head of the defence committee in the Tripoli-based assembly, told Reuters.
Libya is divided into two groups, both of which have their own government, parliament and troops, vying for control of territory and oil facilities. One side operates out of Tripoli, and the other, internationally recognised administration is based in the east.
Earlier this year, militants attacked forces loyal to Tripoli in Sirte, a major central city, and seized governments buildings, the university and a radio station.
The presence of Islamic State militants in Libya came to global attention in February when the group beheaded 21 Egyptians Christians, drawing international condemnation.
Yesterday, a spokesman for forces loyal to the recognised government had said they had observed the pullout of the rival force from the oil ports.
The forces reporting to the eastern government would stay in their positions, Ali al-Hassi had said.