As ex-PM leaves, Libya risks inter-region conflict

Published March 12, 2014 4:40pm ET



TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libya’s ousted prime minister fled to Europe after parliament voted him out, leaving behind a country that risks being torn apart as the fault line between its eastern and western regions broke open Wednesday to a degree unseen since the 2011 civil war that ousted longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

A western-based militia fighting in the name of parliament has launched an offensive against an autonomy-minded militia in the east that has for months occupied most of Libya’s crucial oil facilities — seizing virtual control of the country’s most vital resource and almost sole source of cash. This past week, it succeeded in exporting a tanker of oil from a port it holds in defiance of the central government.

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