Rebels losing ground to Muammar Gaddafi's forces
- AFP
- March 08, 2011
Libyan rebels take cover as a bomb dropped by an airforce fighter jet explodes near a checkpoint on the outskirts of the oil town of Ras Lanuf. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
LIBYAN rebels ceded ground to Muammar Gaddafi's advancing forces last night as the US came under increasing pressure to arm the opposition and the UN appointed a special humanitarian envoy.
The rebels began pulling back from the key oil port of Ras Lanuf as fighter jets targeted defences on the edge of town, throwing up palls of smoke amid fears that government forces were gearing for an attack.
After the bloodiest fighting of the three-week old conflict on Sunday, the UN demanded urgent access to scores of "injured and dying" in the western city of Misrata.
A doctor in Misrata said last night that 21 people, including a child, had been killed in shelling and clashes there on Sunday, and 91 people wounded.
"The overwhelming majority of them are civilians, including a boy aged two and a half," he said of the casualties in Libya's third city which had been shelled by Gaddafi tanks.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon named former Jordanian foreign minister Abdul Ilah Khatib as his special envoy to deal with the regime on the humanitarian front.Residents contacted on Sunday by telephone warned of "carnage" if the international community did not intervene.
Mr Ban's office said he noted "that civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence, and calls for an immediate halt to the government's disproportionate use of force and indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets".
Mr Khatib, 56, will leave for New York "in the next few days before travelling to Libya, where he should meet with all parties involved in the conflict," an associate of the former minister said in Amman.
Mr Ban's office also said Colonel Gaddafi's foreign minister had agreed to let a "humanitarian assessment" team visit Tripoli.
With the military situation worsening and population centres threatened, influential US politicians argued strongly for a US operation to arm the rebels and secure a no-fly zone over Libya to thwart Colonel Gaddafi's air force.
Former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson said it was time to "covertly arm the rebels" and enforce a no-fly zone over Libya.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry said he assumed "a lot of weapons are going to find their way there from one means or another over the course of the next weeks".
The New York Times reported that US defence planners are preparing a range of land, sea and air military options in Libya in case Washington and its allies decide to intervene there, including air-drops of weapons to rebels.
France announced that a no-fly zone had won support from the Arab League, after talks between League secretary-general Amr Mussa and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe in Cairo.
Colonel Gaddafi has not hesitated to use his air power against rebel positions, and reports that his jets bombed protesters in Benghazi in the early days of the revolt are among reported atrocities being investigated by war crimes prosecutors from the International Criminal Court.
The rebels were forced to withdraw from Bin Jawad, 30km west along the coast from Ras Lanuf, where at least 12 people were killed and more than 50 wounded when pro-Gaddafi troops ambushed outgunned and inexperienced rebel forces, medics said.
Ras Lanuf's sole hospital was empty last night after the wounded were moved to Ajdabiya, further east in rebel territory at Ajdabiya.
The odd crackle of gunfire sounded last night across the eerily deserted streets of Ras Lanuf after vehicles loaded with armed rebels were seen speeding out of the town.
The remaining rebel presence appeared very thin, only about a dozen fighters manning the main checkpoint into the town.
The UN called last night for $US160 million to cover relief support including shelter, food and sanitation for refugees as well as others who remained trapped in the strife-torn north African country.
World oil prices shot higher lastr night, striking 2.5 year highs on the turmoil in Libya and the Middle East, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, briefly hit $US106.45 a barrel - the highest level since September 2008, while in London, Brent North Sea crude for April climbed to $116.99.
Colonel Gaddafi, in an interview aired last night by France24 television, repeated his accusation that al-Qa'ida was fomenting the revolt against his regime and railed against France.
When asked about Paris's backing for the national council - the embryonic provisional government formed by rebels in the second city of Benghazi - Colonel Gaddafi said: "It makes one laugh, this interference in internal affairs.
"And what if we interfered in the affairs of Corsica or Sardinia?" he said, speaking in Arabic.
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Rome has begun discreet talks with the rebel National Council to help find a way out of the bloodshed.
"We have better contacts than others" in Libya, which is an ex-Italian colony, Mr Frattini told RAI 1 television.
Britain was forced to admit its own, secret, attempt to begin negotiations with the rebels had ended ignominiously after opposition forces arrested a diplomat and a protection squad inserted clandestinely by helicopter.
In Benghazi, a rebel spokesman said the British team that landed nearby had not made prior arrangements, and was sent away.
An embarrassing mix-up in the international effort to evacuate tens of thousands of refugees saw a French ship leave empty from the Tunisian port of Zarzis after US planes appeared to have taken their human cargo.
The hi-tech helicopter carrier Mistral arrived after steaming from Toulon with 28 doctors aboard. It was supposed to take 900 Egyptians to Alexandria, but found most of them had already been airlifted to Cairo by US planes Sunday.
AFP (source:the australian)
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