Rebels forced from Libyan oil port
Rebels forced from Libyan oil port
10 March 2011; BBC News
Rebels have been struggling to hold their ground amid fierce artillery attacks
Libyan rebels are fleeing the oil port of Ras Lanuf after sustained attacks by forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Rebels were travelling eastwards in vehicles after coming under fire from rockets and shells, reports said.
Libyan state TV said pro-Gaddafi troops had also cleared rebels from the oil port of Sidra, west of Ras Lanuf.
In recent days, Col Gaddafi's forces have been trying to regain ground in the rebel-held east, as well as the town of Zawiya, west of Tripoli.
'Running away'
Meanwhile, France has become the first country to recognise the Libyan rebel leadership, the National Transitional Council (NTC), as the country's legitimate government.
It came as Nato met to discuss international military options in the Libyan conflict, including the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone.
There has been fierce fighting in Libya since mid-February, when opponents to Col Gaddafi's 41-year rule took many towns and cities in eastern Libya, in the wake of successful popular uprisings in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt.
One report on Thursday said that as they advanced on Ras Lanuf, tanks driven by pro-Gaddafi forces had moved to their easternmost position since the conflict began.
A witness in Ras Lanuf said he had seen dozens of dead bodies in the residential part of the town.
A BBC reporter said the Ras Lanuf hospital had been evacuated due to the bombardment, and a mosque had been hit in a residential area where the families of oil workers live.
"Gaddafi is attacking us with planes, tanks, rockets and heavy weapons, we are unarmed civilians and there many families and kids were hit," one Libyan told the BBC.
"We've been defeated," a rebel fighter told AFP news agency. "They are shelling and we are running away. That means that they're taking Ras Lanuf."
But Reuters quoted rebels as denying that the town had fallen.
Government planes also bombed Brega, another oil port further east.
One witness there told the BBC that rebels were able to resist Gaddafi ground troops, but were more vulnerable to air attacks. The air strikes had also been targeting oil facilities, he said.
'Civil war'
Zawiya, 50km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, is now reported to be either largely or wholly under the control of government forces.
A journalist for the Times of London reported from Zawiya on Thursday that the centre of the town was under government control, and that there was a clean-up operation going on after days of intense fighting.
BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says fears that the military balance may be shifting in Col Gaddafi's favour have prompted calls for urgent international action.
At Nato headquarters in Brussels, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the organisation had agreed to increase its maritime presence in the central Mediterranean to help enforce the arms embargo against Libya.
But he said more planning would be needed on a possible "no-fly" zone.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that she will travel to Egypt and Tunisia next week, and that she will meet rebel leaders during the trip.
"We are reaching out to the opposition inside and outside of Libya," she said.
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday there was a marked increase in civilian casualties in what he called a "civil war".
A BBC team detained and beaten up in Libya witnessed widespread mistreatment by the security forces.
They were subjected to mock executions and held for 21 hours in bloodstained cells, where they heard people screaming in adjacent rooms.
Brazilian newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo has confirmed that one of its journalists, who went missing in Zawiya, is under arrest.
And the UK's Guardian newspaper said urgent efforts are under way to establish the whereabouts of its correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who has been reporting from western Libya for the past two weeks.
Libyan state TV reported that three Dutch soldiers taken captive in late February as they tried to evacuate civilians from Sirte would be freed.
Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12703369
