BENGHAZI/ HARARE: Libyan rebels battled to defend their gains in the face of an offensive by troops loyal to Moamer Qadhafi on Monday, holding on to strategic Bir Ghanam but suffering casualties elsewhere.
Rebels fighting at Zliten, 120 kilometres to the east of Tripoli, admitted they were running low on ammunition as they struggled to hold off an assault by loyalist forces.
Abdul Wahab Melitan, a rebel spokesman in the port city of Misrata near Zliten, said forces loyal to strongman Qadhafi had launched an assault on their positions on Sunday in the Souk Telat area.
Since then, he said, four rebel fighters have been killed and 40 wounded. “The rebels lack ammunition to advance and we do not want to risk losing any ground,” Melitan said. The rebels on Tuesday punched into the centre of Zliten, sparking fierce clashes but later pulled back to the edge of the city.
Nato in Brussels said alliance warplanes hit eight targets in the Zliten area on Sunday—four command and control nodes, one military facility, a weapons dump, an anti-tank weapon and a multiple rocket launcher.
The alliance also said it hit four targets in the area of the eastern oil hub of Brega and five in Tripoli, a day after a heavy bombardment of the city. Meanwhile, rebels held onto Bir Ghanam early on Monday, an AFP journalist said. “The rebels are controlling the checkpoints. There are no shots,” the journalist said, adding that Nato warplanes were overhead.
In Tripoli, Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi earlier told reporters that government troops had recaptured the town. “Life is back to normal in Bir Ghanam, and today it is under the full control of the regime,” he said.
Mahmudi also condemned the intensification of Nato raids on Tripoli and other cities, claiming that the alliance no longer “differentiates between civilian and military sites.”
Meanwhile, the London Times newspaper reported on Monday that a rebel blueprint for a post-Qadhafi Libya would retain much of the current regime’s infrastructure in the hope of averting an Iraq-style descent into chaos.
A 70-page plan prepared by the rebel National Transitional Council with help from Western powers and seen by the paper concedes they have little chance of toppling Qadhafi but forecast that internal divisions would force him out.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday brandished Nato a ‘terrorist’ organisation over attacks in Libya, saying the military alliance wanted to kill veteran leader Moamer Qadhafi.
“So you get mad people in Europe. Mad people who refuse and reject the truth, mad people who defy international law,” Mugabe told a gathering to remember fighters of the country’s liberation struggle.
“Look at what they are doing in Libya, it is Nato against international law. “That’s why I say Nato is now a terrorist organisation as well. If it defies international law.”
Mugabe, who has governed Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, accused Western nations of wishing to kill Qadhafi. “It (Nato) has lost its legitimacy; it has become terrorist and beware this they can do on any other African country than Libya. We must always be in a state of preparedness,” Mugabe said.
“They seek to kill Qadhafi. They have in fact deliberately killed some of his children. “Now when they do that deliberately, it is exactly what the Taliban and Al Qaeda do—what is the difference in terms of what they (Nato) are doing?”
The 87-year-old Mugabe also slammed former colonial ruler Britain for imposing sanctions on him and his close allies in government, and said Zimbabwe will “hit back” at over 400 British companies operating in the country. “We cannot continue to receive the battering of sanctions without hitting back,” Mugabe said.
“Why should a company that belongs to Britain be allowed to continue to mine our gold in this country?”
Source: The News International, Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Rebels fighting at Zliten, 120 kilometres to the east of Tripoli, admitted they were running low on ammunition as they struggled to hold off an assault by loyalist forces.
Abdul Wahab Melitan, a rebel spokesman in the port city of Misrata near Zliten, said forces loyal to strongman Qadhafi had launched an assault on their positions on Sunday in the Souk Telat area.
Since then, he said, four rebel fighters have been killed and 40 wounded. “The rebels lack ammunition to advance and we do not want to risk losing any ground,” Melitan said. The rebels on Tuesday punched into the centre of Zliten, sparking fierce clashes but later pulled back to the edge of the city.
Nato in Brussels said alliance warplanes hit eight targets in the Zliten area on Sunday—four command and control nodes, one military facility, a weapons dump, an anti-tank weapon and a multiple rocket launcher.
The alliance also said it hit four targets in the area of the eastern oil hub of Brega and five in Tripoli, a day after a heavy bombardment of the city. Meanwhile, rebels held onto Bir Ghanam early on Monday, an AFP journalist said. “The rebels are controlling the checkpoints. There are no shots,” the journalist said, adding that Nato warplanes were overhead.
In Tripoli, Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi earlier told reporters that government troops had recaptured the town. “Life is back to normal in Bir Ghanam, and today it is under the full control of the regime,” he said.
Mahmudi also condemned the intensification of Nato raids on Tripoli and other cities, claiming that the alliance no longer “differentiates between civilian and military sites.”
Meanwhile, the London Times newspaper reported on Monday that a rebel blueprint for a post-Qadhafi Libya would retain much of the current regime’s infrastructure in the hope of averting an Iraq-style descent into chaos.
A 70-page plan prepared by the rebel National Transitional Council with help from Western powers and seen by the paper concedes they have little chance of toppling Qadhafi but forecast that internal divisions would force him out.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday brandished Nato a ‘terrorist’ organisation over attacks in Libya, saying the military alliance wanted to kill veteran leader Moamer Qadhafi.
“So you get mad people in Europe. Mad people who refuse and reject the truth, mad people who defy international law,” Mugabe told a gathering to remember fighters of the country’s liberation struggle.
“Look at what they are doing in Libya, it is Nato against international law. “That’s why I say Nato is now a terrorist organisation as well. If it defies international law.”
Mugabe, who has governed Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, accused Western nations of wishing to kill Qadhafi. “It (Nato) has lost its legitimacy; it has become terrorist and beware this they can do on any other African country than Libya. We must always be in a state of preparedness,” Mugabe said.
“They seek to kill Qadhafi. They have in fact deliberately killed some of his children. “Now when they do that deliberately, it is exactly what the Taliban and Al Qaeda do—what is the difference in terms of what they (Nato) are doing?”
The 87-year-old Mugabe also slammed former colonial ruler Britain for imposing sanctions on him and his close allies in government, and said Zimbabwe will “hit back” at over 400 British companies operating in the country. “We cannot continue to receive the battering of sanctions without hitting back,” Mugabe said.
“Why should a company that belongs to Britain be allowed to continue to mine our gold in this country?”
Source: The News International, Tuesday, August 09, 2011
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