Heavy fighting grips Libya oil city as allies step up raids on Tripoli
PHOTO | AFP
Libyan men watch as the main fuel depot in Libya’s third largest city, Misrata, burns following a bombing by forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday. Libyan regime forces shelled fuel depots in Misrata and dropped mines into its harbour using helicopters bearing the Red Cross emblem, rebels said.
MISRATA, Libya, Sunday
Libyan regime forces laying siege on Misrata intensified their assault on the lifeline port today as smoke billowed from a fuel depot bombing, attacks a rights group said may amount to an atrocity.
Two loud explosions were also heard in Tripoli, where the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has its headquarters, as jets flew overhead, witnesses said.
In Misrata, fighting broke out in the resort area of Burgueya, west of the make-or-break city in the Libyan conflict lying about 200 kilometres east of the capital.
A thick plume of smoke spread over Misrata from blazing fuel depots bombed a day earlier, while long queues could be seen at fuel stations amid fears of shortages, an AFP correspondent said.
Forces loyal to Gaddafi “destroyed the only tanks that were full,” said Ahmad Monthasser, a rebel from Misrata. “Someone pointed out the exact location of the fuel depots. This means inside the city there is a fifth column that is collaborating with Gaddafi,” he said.
Government troops have stepped up their attacks on the port of Misrata, the main source of supplies to rebels fighting to oust the veteran strongman in western Libya.
Misrata is seen as the key to the Libyan conflict, which broke out in mid-February after Gaddafi’s security forces waged a bloody crackdown on protests inspired by regime-changing movements in Tunisia and Egypt.
Rebels in Misrata have been fearing for days that Gaddafi’s forces will mount a new ground assault on the city.
And on Saturday, the Gaddafi regime unleashed a salvo of Grad rockets on towns in Libya’s western mountains near the border with Tunisia as it bombed Misrata’s fuel depots.
At least nine rebels were killed and 50 wounded in fierce clashes in the northwestern town of Zintan as Gaddafi forces pressed the insurgents on several fronts.
A barrage of shells had also struck Wazin, a western town near the border with Tunisia, forcing thousands to flee, while loyalist fighters also attacked the southern oasis towns of Ojla and Jalo, which neighbour oil facilities. The day before, Gaddafi’s forces dropped mines into Misrata’s harbour using small helicopters bearing the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems, the rebels said.
Amnesty International’s senior adviser Donatella Rovera lashed out at the Gaddafi regime, saying the mines do not “distinguish between civilian and military vehicles.” “Such systematic targeting of Misrata’s only conduit for humanitarian supplies and for the evacuation of critically ill and wounded patients is nothing short of collective punishment against the city’s population,” she said in a statement.
“Those in the Libyan regime up and down the chain of command must be aware that who are responsible for indiscriminate attacks and collective punishment may one day have to answer to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“They must immediately end indiscriminate attacks and collective punishment and allow adequate humanitarian assistance to reach civilians,” said Rovera.
Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the opposition National Transitional Council said it was Gaddafi’s growing desperation behind such “firepower on the people” following economic and political pressure from world powers.
World powers have promised $250 million in humanitarian aid to the rebels and said the Gaddafi regime’s frozen overseas assets, estimated at $60 billion, would be used later to assist the Libyan opposition.
Unlocking Gaddafi’s funds abroad would, however, pose “many difficulties” as the international resolutions freezing them remained in force, said Giorgio Sacerdoti, international law professor at the University of Bocconi in Milan. “The government in Tripoli has not disappeared and the resolutions of the UN and the European Union do not say that he (Gaddafi) is illegitimate,” he added.
The economic situation in rebel held areas, including their bastion Benghazi, is steadily worsening, with costs of basic commodities skyrocketing and the rebel administration facing shortage of funds as receipts from oil exports have come to a virtual halt.
“We are still discovering different segments that need to be paid, every single moment a new need arises,” said Ali Torhuni, who manages the economic portfolio for the rebels.
Two loud explosions rocked a western sector of Tripoli on Sunday afternoon as jets flew overhead, witnesses told AFP.
An international coalition began carrying out strikes on Gaddafi forces on March 19, under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians in the country. Nato took command of operations over Libya on March 31. Sunday’s explosions came a week after the regime said Seif al-Arab Gaddafi, one of Gaddafi’s sons, and three of his grandchildren were killed in a Nato air strike on a compound in Tripoli. (AFP)
