Monday, March 28, 2011

RAS LANOUF, Libya: International air raids targeted Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte for the first time Sunday night as rebels made a high-speed advance toward the regime stronghold, a formidable obstacle that must be overcome for the government opponents to reach the capital Tripoli.

Meanwhile, NATO agreed Sunday to take full responsibility for military operations in Libya.
A heavy bombardment of Tripoli also began after nightfall, with at least nine loud explosions and anti-aircraft fire heard, an Associated Press reporter in the city said.

Earlier in the day, rebels regained two key oil complexes along the coastal highway that runs from the opposition-held eastern half of the country toward Sirte and beyond that, to the capital. Moving quickly westward, the advance retraced the steps of the rebels’ first march toward the capital. But this time, the world’s most powerful air forces have eased the way by pounding Gadhafi’s forces for the past week.

Sirte is strategically located about halfway between the rebel-held east and the Gadhafi-controlled west along the coastal highway. It is considered a bastion of support for Gadhafi that will be difficult for the rebels to take and the entrances to the city have reportedly been mined. If the rebels could overcome it, momentum for a march on the capital would skyrocket.

The rebels’ gains now put them back in control of the main oil terminals in the east – Es Sider, Ras Lanouf, Brega, Zueitina and Tobruk – while Gadhafi appears to be redeploying his troops to concentrate on holding the west.
After nightfall, foreign journalists in Sirte reported loud explosions and warplanes flying overheard. They said the city was swarming with soldiers on patrol. Libyan state television confirmed air raids on Sirte and Tripoli.

“As they move round the coast, of course, the rebels will increasingly control the exit points of Libya’s oil,” British Defense Secretary Liam Fox told the BBC. “That will produce a very dynamic and a very different equilibrium inside Libya. How that will play out in terms of public opinion and the Gadhafi regime remains to be seen.”

Ending a week of heated negotiations over the command structure, NATO agreed Sunday to take charge of operations to target Gadhafi’s military infrastructure and protect civilians, as well as implementing a no-fly zone and an arms embargo.
NATO jets Sunday already began enforcing the no-fly zone, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
Diplomats said the full transfer of authority would take several days.

“NATO allies have decided to take on the whole military operation in Libya under the U.N. Security Council resolution,” Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement. “NATO will implement all aspects of the U.N. resolution. Nothing more, nothing less.”

On the eastern approach of Ras Lanouf, airstrikes hit three empty tank transporters and left two buildings that appeared to be sleeping quarters pockmarked with shrapnel.

Like the oil port of Brega and the city of Ajdabiya before it, Gadhafi’s troops appear to have left in a hurry, abandoning ammunition and disappearing without a fight.
Capturing Ajdabiya was a big morale boost for the revolt, whose disorganized and poorly equipped insurgents had raised doubts about their ability to topple Gadhafi.

“This is a victory from God,” said Ali Mohammad, a 53-year-old teacher in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
As the front line shifted toward the heartland of Gadhafi’s support, government forces Sunday resumed shelling of the rebel-held city of Misrata, ending a brief lull in fighting that followed Western air strikes, a resident told Reuters. Fighting stopped late Sunday.

A rebel, called Mohammad, told Reuters by phone that pro-Gadhafi forces controlled “only one small area, a couple of streets” in the western part of the city. He said, “99 percent of the city is under our control.”
A Misrata resident told Reuters inhabitants had to use wells to get water and that there were problems with medicines.
A rebel in Misrata told Reuters Gadhafi was putting all his weight into attacking the city so he could control the whole of the west of the vast desert country after losing the east.

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that Gadhafi was personally “leading the battle” but appeared to suggest the leader might be moving around the country so as to keep his whereabouts a mystery.
“He has many offices, many places around Libya,” he said.

Gadhafi has not been shown on television since he made a speech Wednesday and his sons Seif al-Islam and Khamis – who earlier in the conflict spoke regularly to foreign media – have been out of sight even longer.
Internet social networks and some Arabic-language media have reported that Khamis, commander of the elite 32nd brigade, was killed by a disaffected air force pilot who, according to the reports, flew his plane into the Gadhafi compound in Tripoli. There has been no official confirmation. – Reuters, AP