Libya News:

Libya Rebels Say They’ve Taken Refinery, Have Almost Surrounded Tripoli

By Chris Stephen - Aug 19, 2011 1:55 PM GMT+0530

Rebels in the west of Libya say they’ve captured the oil terminal that supplies fuel to Muammar Qaddafi’s forces and have almost encircled the outskirts of the capital, Tripoli.

The announcement of the seizure of the facility outside the town of Zawiya came late yesterday on the rebels’ radio station in the city of Misrata, Libya Freedom Voice. There was no independent confirmation of the report.

The opposition fighters battled government forces for control of the refinery yesterday, and by noon local time held three-quarters of it, said Colonel Ahmed Bani, the rebels’ defense spokesman. They stopped the flow of oil to the capital, 56 kilometers (35 miles) eastward along a coastal road, he said.

The claims of progress in the rebels’ attempt to isolate Tripoli come after weeks of stalemate in the sixth month of the conflict. Qaddafi, who seized power in the oil-rich North African nation in a military coup in 1969, controls the capital and has told his followers to keep fighting the rebels and to resist the North Atlantic Treaty Organization airstrikes.

Libya’s biggest refinery, at Ras Lanuf, which can produce 220,000 barrels a day, has stopped operating because of the fighting. Zawiya has a refining capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil a day, almost a third of Libya’s total.

Fierce fighting also erupted around Misrata, to the east of Tripoli, with the city’s Military Council saying that battles between the rebels and government troops were taking place in the neighboring town of Zlitan.

Four rebels were killed, the Mujama Aleiadat hospital in Misrata said. It gave no figure for the number wounded. No information on casualties was released by the government in Tripoli.

Rockets have hit houses, causing civilian casualties, the council said.

“Families and the wounded are being left to bleed without any aid or medicine,” it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Stephen in Misrata through the Dubai newsroom atbarden@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.

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