Libya unleashes airstrikes on rebels

KAREEM FAHIM; DAVID D KIRKPATRICK
International Herald Tribune
03-09-2011
Libya unleashes airstrikes on rebels
Byline: KAREEM FAHIM; DAVID D KIRKPATRICK
Section: Region In Revolt
Type: News

The air attacks added a note of urgency to a growing debate in Western capitals about imposing a no-flight zone over Libya.

CORRECTION APPENDED
Government warplanes taunted rebels with flyovers and repeatedly bombed their positions near this coastal city's oil refinery on Monday and Tuesday, seeking to drive the opposition forces back farther to the east, as Libya continued what appeared to be a slide into civil war.

The air attacks, which wounded a family of five, added a note of urgency to a growing debate in Western capitals about imposing a no- flight zone over Libya.

The bombing runs began on Monday morning, sending huge plumes of smoke into the air around 10 a.m. With every roar of a jet engine, the rebels opened fire with what sounded like every weapon available, from heavy artillery to pistols. In the evening, a warplane swooped low and on two separate occasions dropped bombs near a heavily defended rebel checkpoint, striking a car carrying the family and sending rebel fighters fleeing for cover in chaotic scenes.

On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported, loyalists launched two more airstrikes, maintaining an effort to block the rebels' advance westward toward Tripoli. The bombs did not seem to hit any rebel fighters.

There were conflicting reports about the casualties after the airstrikes. Witnesses had said a man died when the car was hit, but doctors at a local hospital said the man, along with four relatives, survived.

Also on Tuesday, The A.P. reported the European Union as saying that the Libyan government was urging the United Nations to send an independent mission to Libya to investigate the violence. A senior E.U. official, who returned from Tripoli late Monday and spoke on condition of anonymity due to standing rules, said top officials of the Libyan Foreign Ministry had repeatedly made the request during their meetings.

The steady attacks from the air helped further turn the momentum of the conflict in eastern Libya, where opposition fighters had made strong gains recently in their drive to the west, toward Surt, a stronghold of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and on to Tripoli. But on Sunday, troops loyal to Colonel Qaddafi stormed the town of Bin Jawwad, just to the west of Ras Lanuf, backed by fierce air power, and sent the fighters holding it into retreat.

Those troops remained on the outskirts of Ras Lanuf on Monday evening, taking no immediate steps to try to recapture it or its strategic refinery from the rebels, who took control three days ago in their westward push.

In addition, the elite Khamis Brigade continued on Monday to batter the opposition-held city of Zawiyah, west of Tripoli, with tanks, artillery and snipers, residents there said. With cellphone and Internet communications cut off, virtually the only source of information on events there was a lone reporter for Sky TV, a British television channel. She said the heavily armed government troops attacked in the morning and inexplicably withdrew after several hours, even though their tanks seemed to have taken control of the city's central square.

Government forces also attacked the rebel-held city of Misurata, Libya's third largest, which lies about 160 kilometers, or 100 miles, east of Tripoli.

The rebels have rejected any foreign invasion of the country but would welcome a no-flight zone, saying they can handle Colonel Qaddafi's soldiers, tanks and rockets, but not his warplanes and helicopter gunships. On Monday, Britain and France said they would seek U.N. authority for a no-flight zone, but Russia, which holds veto power, has already rejected any form of military intervention.

The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, said the organization had established 24-hour surveillance of Libya with Awacs reconnaissance aircraft.

In Tripoli, the Libyan foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, held an extraordinary news conference in which he accused the United States and Britain of "yearning for the colonial era" and seeking to divide the country. Continuing the government's string of improbable claims, he maintained that a force of about 300 Qaeda fighters formerly held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay was backing rebel forces.

"They are now fighting in eastern Libya. Their methods and approaches are clear," Mr. Koussa said. "When they were released, they started moving again, and they have taken weapons."

Mr. Koussa also became the first government official to admit that the government was meeting resistance in Zawiyah. But whereas news reports and interviews with residents have described a grim, large-scale battle, he said the violence was caused by a group of 30 to 35 rebels who were "hiding in the streets."

The correspondent for Sky News -- the only news organization present in Zawiyah for the height of the battle on Friday -- reported Monday in a British newspaper on what appeared to be a massacre there. She said she had seen government snipers killing residents at a funeral, a column of 25 tanks shelling the town for three hours and a young rebel boy learning how to fire a rocket- propelled grenade in defense. The correspondent, Alex Crawford, said government forces had shot at an ambulance she was riding in.

The streets of Ras Lanuf were quiet on Monday, troubled only by cars and minivans filled with families leaving the city, including many foreign workers. On Sunday, troops loyal to Colonel Qaddafi attacked rebel troops in Bin Jawwad and pushed them east. Rebel fighters expected those troops to continue on toward Ras Lanuf.

On a grassy hill overlooking the sea, teenagers -- volunteers from Benghazi -- placed branches around an antiaircraft gun as a young rebel soldier watched. Hamed Sardina, a retired harbormaster, drank tea with a friend next to the gun and said he was not planning to leave. "We're here to defend the area," he said, pointing to the white houses across the street. And in case the fighting became too fierce, he said, he owns a few boats.

Nearby, opposition soldiers replaced the staff at the city's main hotel on Monday morning. In a cafe with a view of the sea, a rebel fighter tried, in vain, to prepare a cappuccino. His comrades commandeered smart-looking rooms where they could shower and watch the news on television. Outside, a young rebel from the town of al- Marja, in eastern Libya, watched the scene inside.

"We are the richest country, and we have the poorest people," he said.

CORRECTION:

As published in the International Herald Tribune

An article on March 9 about Libyan military attacks on rebel forces misstated a British television correspondent's description of a March 4 assault by government forces on the rebel-held city of Zawiyah, as published in the March 7 edition of The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. The correspondent, Alex Crawford of Sky News, the only journalist present in Zawiyah on March 4, told the newspaper that residents marching toward a funeral had been fired on by soldiers, not by government snipers. She also said someone told her there were 25 to 30 tanks in a column she had witnessed shelling the city; she did not count the number of tanks herself. And she described a person she had seen apparently learning how to fire a rocket-propelled grenade in defense as a young man, not a young boy.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Copyright International Herald Tribune Mar 09, 2011