Gaddafi loyalists launch offensive

11/03/2011| IslamWeb

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, have launched a large-scale offensive, beginning with new air strikes on the eastern oil-producing towns of Ras Lanuf and Brega.

Anti-government forces were reported to be retreating from Ras Lanuf, the site of a key oil installation. They lost control of the pockets of residential parts of the town that they had been clinging to by Friday morning, sources told Al Jazeera.

Yet they retained control of the strategically-important oil refineries in the town's port, Ibrahim Said, the deputy director of the hospital in nearby Ajdabiya, told the Associated Press.

Ibrahim al-Alwani, an anti-government fighter, said he and comrades still in Ras Lanuf had seen government troops in the town centre.

"I saw maybe 150 men and three tanks," he told Reuters on Friday morning. "I can hear clashes."

The government troops had landed by boat near the Fadeel hotel in Ras Lanuf on Friday, a spokesperson told Reuters.

"Four boats carrying 40 to 50 men each landed there. We are fighting them right now," Mohammed al-Mughrabi said.

Foreign journalists faced significant hurdles on getting information out of Ras Lanuf, but Libyan state television aired footage on Friday of people fleeing the city and of pro-Gaddafi searching houses for weapons.

Pro- and anti-government forces are locked in intense fighting for control of several other cities and towns along the coastline to the east of Tripoli, including Bin Jawad, as well as in Az Zawiyah to the west of the capital.

In an interview with the Reuters, Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said the time had come for full scale military action against the anti-government forces.

"There is no more chance for negotiations with anti-government forces fighting the Libyan government," he said on Thursday.

He said the military would never give up - but would fight in Libya and die in Libya.

Ambulances blocked

The bodies of four anti-government fighters killed in the fighting were brought to a hospital in Ajdabiyah on Thursday, along with 36 wounded, Ibrahim Saeed, a doctor at the hospital.

There were additional deaths in the frontline town of Brega. Gaddafi’s forces were preventing ambulances from going to Ras Lanuf, and doctors predicted the death toll to be much higher.

"At the moment it's 10 dead and dozens injured from Thursday's fighting, and that's likely to rise significantly. We believe there are many more bodies in the area," Doctor Salem Langhi, a doctor in Brega, said.

"Ambulances have not been allowed to go there to Ras Lanuf, the army is blocking the road."

Major offensive underway

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, reporting from Ras Lanuf, said many had wondered in recent days about "why Gaddafi [had] not employed his full forces".

"Today we've seen those forces in action," he said.

"We were caught right in the middle as his forces out-flanked, and then out-bombed and out-shot the anti-government forces. There was sustained aerial and artillery and mortar bombardment, followed by a flanking movement.

"There have been a number of casualties. We've seen trucks going along the highway, but that's being shelled by Gaddafi forces all the way along. I counted ... 50 shells falling.

"We've seen trucks with wounded lying in the back of pick-ups, and I think the casualty toll is going to be high. We also saw and heard extensive ground fire coming from the beach [in the north], we think there's been a flanking movement from the beach.

"But it seems like the major offensive that we thought was going to happen is underway now."

Engineers at the town's oil facilities have been burning off poisonous gas in case of a direct hit on the refinery, anti-government forces say.

Hundreds of people attended the midday prayers in the town of Ajdabiya on Friday, despite warnings from Libyan state television that pro-Gaddafi forces were about to attack, a local journalist told Al Jazeera.

Gaddafi's men also pounded Az Zawiyah with tanks and war planes.

"The revolutionaries control the centre of Zawiyah and Gaddafi's forces are surrounding it. It's 50-50," a resident who fled the city said.

"There was no one in the streets, the town is completely deserted, and there are snipers on the roofs," he said, adding that he did not know which side they were on.

An official at one of Libya's largest refineries, which is located in Az Zawiyah, said it has remained shut for the fourth consecutive day, and would only reopen on Friday if there was no fighting overnight.

No-fly zone debated

The battles are raging as revolutionaries pile on pressure on the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to cripple Gaddafi's air force.

While several world powers have backed such a measure, the logistics are yet to be worked out with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, saying such a move should be driven by the United Nations and not the United States.

NATO and the European Union began fresh talks on a no-fly zone on Thursday, with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato's secretary-general, saying that "further planning will be required" if a no-fly zone were to be enforced, under the UN's mandate.

Jakob Kellenberger, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on Thursday warned that Libya was in a state of "civil war", and appealed for aid workers to be given greater access to the country.

Opposition forces vowed to continue fighting against Gaddafi, even if a no-fly zone was not imposed.

"If they implement a no-fly zone we will ask for other things. Even if they do not implement it, we will fight," Iman Bugaigis, a media officer with the February 17 Coalition, told reporters in Benghazi.

"There is no return for us. This nation will not bear both of us. It is us or his (Gaddafi's) family. After what happened in Zawiyah, how can we live with this person?" she said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Flashpoint cities in Libya

Al-Jazeera