BENGHAZI (Libya): Libya threatened on Saturday to bomb a North Korean-flagged tanker at an oil terminal in the restive east if it does not leave port, saying it was loading illegally.

Separatist militants blockading Al-Sidra facility in eastern Libya attempted to load crude aboard the ship the Morning Glory in the latest challenge to central government control.

The self-proclaimed government of Cyrenaica in the east, the political wing of the separatists, said oil exports from Al-Sidra had now begun.

“We announce to Libyans and to the whole world that we have begun exporting oil,” said Rabbo al-Barassi, who heads the Cyrenaica executive bureau formed in August by federalist activists.

“We are not defying the government or the Congress (parliament). But we are insisting on our rights,” he said.

Protesters at the eastern oil ports are demanding a restoration of the autonomy the eastern region was granted in the first decade after Libya's independence in 1951.

They have also accused the authorities of corruption and are demanding a more equitable distribution of oil revenues.

Deputy Defence Minister Khaled al-Sherif said a “crisis committee” of government officials and lawmakers had issued an ultimatum for the oil tanker to leave Libyan territorial waters.

“If the ship doesn't comply, it will be bombed by the air force or intercepted at sea by the navy,” Sherif warned.

An MP and committee member said the 2pm deadline expired without any action being taken, however.

Washington's envoy to Tripoli warned on Twitter that any cargo deemed to have been loaded illegally would face international sanction.“Companies that engage in illicit trade with separatist groups in Libya risk liability in multiple jurisdictions,” US Ambassador Deborah Jones tweeted.

“The only entities authorised to sell Libya's oil are the Libyan National Oil Corp., its subsidiaries JV partners,” she added.

Earlier, a member of the energy committee in Libya's interim parliament, the General National Congress, said an “oil tanker, bearing the name Morning Glory, anchored on Saturday at 4am at the port of Al-Sidra”.

Militants seeking autonomy for Libya's east were trying to load a shipment of petroleum “outside the framework of the state”, added the GNC member, speaking on condition of anonymity.—AFPP