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Turkish Airlines (THYAO) has suspended its flights to Libya due to mounting security concerns, severing the last foreign air link to the North African oil producer.

We have stopped flights to Misrata for the past few days, spokesman Ali Genc said by phone. Until security is restored we dont plan to restart them.

The suspension comes amid escalating violence following the ouster and killing of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Libya is now split between Islamists who control Tripoli and the west, and the United Nations-recognized government of Abdullah al-Thinni in the east, whose forces said they carried out Jan. 4 airstrikes on Misrata that prompted Turkish Airlines decision.

Those strikes were a significant development as Misrata was the only place in the country where there was no real military action, Riccardo Fabiani, senior North Africa analyst at Eurasia Group in London, said by phone. The conflict has now escalated to the point where talking about a deal between the two sides is meaningless.

The two sides have reached a military stalemate with the Tobruk government having air superiority while Islamists are more powerful on the ground.

Turkish Airlines previously also operated flights to Tripoli, the eastern city of Benghazi and Sebha in the south, according to its website.

Alongside Libyas growing isolation, the oil industry that fuels its economy is being slowly dismantled.

On Jan. 4, a Greek-operated oil tanker was bombed near a port in eastern Libya, killing a Greek and a Romanian sailor. At the end of December, a fire at Libyas largest oil terminal engulfed three storage tanks after an attack by Islamist militants.

The latest spate of fighting led to a decline in output to 352,000 barrels a day, which makes Libya, holder of Africas largest oil reserves, the smallest producer of the 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Libya was producing about 1.6 million barrels a day before the 2011 war.

The Central Bank said last week Libyas foreign reserves are being depleted, without providing details. Reserves stood at about $100 billion in June.

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Turkish Carrier Halts Flights to Increasingly Isolated Libya