"Al-Sidra is located in a region known as the "oil crescent" that has been the scene of recent clashes between government forces and Fajr Libya [movement]," Agence France-Presse reported.
Since Al-Sidra is Libya's largest oil port, Fajr Libya's militants have attempted to maintain control over the strategic center.
Fourteen soldiers from the 136th battalion, loyal to former general Khalifa Haftar, were killed during the fighting while their four counterparts died later, during following attacks. According to a medical source at Sirte's Ibn Sina hospital, cited by the media outlet, only 18 corpses of dead soldiers have been found.
"Fourteen soldiers were killed in a surprise attack on the 136th battalion responsible for monitoring a power plant west of Sirte," a military source told Agence France-Presse.
Al-Ahram, an Egyptian media-outlet, points out that 2014 year was "the darkest" for Libya. Armed conflicts and political polarization lured the country into a civil war, which is likely to result in partition of the state.
"Opening on a note of intensifying tensions and violence, 2014 inexorably led the country to acute polarization that by the end of the year was crowned with two rival parliaments and two governments, each claiming legitimacy and each determined to exclude the other," Al-Ahram underscores.
