Turkey condemns Libya ship attack

Ankara has denounced a fatal attack on a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of Libya, in an indication of how fighting in the North African state risks further drawing in outside powers, Ft.com reports.

Despite denials by the countries involved and vocal Turkish support for talks to resolve the conflict, the battle in Libya has been increasingly depicted as a proxy war between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, providing military backing to the internationally-recognised government, and Turkey and Qatar, supporting breakaway Islamists,reports Daniel Dombey in Istanbul.

The latest incident, which took place on Sunday night but was only revealed today, appears to show the extent to which Turkey is now seen as a hostile power by forces allied with Libya's official government - a country with which it previously had close and lucrative ties.

The Turkish foreign ministry said on Monday that the ship, which was carrying building materials, had been attacked by ground artillery fire in international waters about 13 miles off the shore of Tobruk.
It added that when the ship subsequently sought to escape it was hit by two separate airstrikes, which killed a senior crew member.

The ministry added it had asked Libyan authorities to "prevent such actions against Turkish ships and carry out the necessary legal actions against those responsible for the attack".

In a further reference to forces allied to the Libyan government, it said that the attack was a "new example of the violation of international law of those who bombed civilian infrastructure" - and linked it to the Libyan airforce's bombing of the rebel-held Tripoli airport in March.

The foreign ministry also called for United Nations Security Council censure of the attack.