Libyan rebels tell of advance in battle for oil town

BENGHAZI, Libya, Sunday

The battle for the Libyan oil town of Brega switched from the desert to intense street-to-street fighting on Sunday, as rebel forces said they punched into a residential area in the town’s northeast.

Rebel forces said they had re-entered Brega but had not yet managed to wrest control of the town from Muammar Gaddafi’s troops, who have held it since April.

“Some small groups have made it inside, but we do not control the whole (town) yet,” said Mohammed Zawi, a spokesman for the rebel forces.
Mr Zawi dismissed rumours that Gaddafi troops had abandoned the town altogether.

“It is now close fighting,” he said, indicating a new phase in the four-day rebel campaign.

Until now heavy artillery had set the tenor of the battle, but mortars and rockets now appear to have given way to heavy machine guns — a more useful weapon for fighting at close quarters.

But that did little to stem the bloodshed. Some 13 rebel fighters have now been killed and almost 200 wounded since the battle for Brega began on Thursday.

Nestled on the Gulf of Sirte, Brega is made up of three areas, a residential area in the east, a major oil facility in the west and an old town in between.

A small rebel force had entered Brega from the northeast late on Friday, before pulling back for Nato air strikes and for fellow fighters to the south to beat back Gaddafi’s troops.

After a series of military gains were washed away by hasty and badly coordinated advances, rebel commanders said they are anxious to make sure they have a unified offensive line before pushing forward.

Taking Brega is a key strategic goal for the rebels, giving them access to one of the country’s largest oil facilities.

Meanwhile, the rebels said their steady advance on Brega was slowed by the discovery of defensive trenches around the city that had been filled with flammable chemicals by retreating Gaddafi troops.

After a small rebel reconnaissance force from the north punched through to Brega late on Friday before falling back, a rebel commander said troops were now moving “slowly but surely” toward the town from the east and south as well.

“We are advancing and we are very close to Brega,” said Mustafa al-Sagezli, a member of the rebel’s revolutionary military council, adding that Gaddafi’s troops had fallen back to positions inside the town.

But the commander said landmines and a series of booby-trapped trenches had forced them to slow the attack in order to minimise casualties.

“We know Gaddafi’s forces have installed a lot of mines. They have even dug holes and trenches (filled) with some chemical liquids and oil to fire them when our forces enter Brega,” he said.

It was not clear what kind of chemicals were being used, but the oil hub is home to a large petrochemical facility that produces a range of oil by-products.

Libya’s largely volunteer rebel army began their push on Brega late on Thursday, hoping to oust an estimated 3,000 loyalist fighters and provide a moral boost for war-weary rebel supporters.

By Saturday morning the rebels’ forward position to the north was four kilometres from the town centre, while a second unit attacking from due east of Brega faced stiffer resistance and was about 10-20 kilometres from the town.

“Most of Gaddafi’s troops seem to be at the centre,” said rebel military spokesman Mohammed Zawi. But the assault took its toll, with at least 10 dead and 172 wounded, according to medics.

At a hospital in Ajdabiya where most of the wounded were brought, Doctor Ahmed Dinari said many of the casualties were now caused by landmines rather than Gaddafi’s heavy artillery, as earlier on in the offensive.

“We have had five more injuries this morning, all of them from mine explosions,” he said.