EAST OF BREGA – The US military is poised to withdraw its combat jets and Tomahawk missiles from the air campaign against Libya’s regime as NATO allies take the lead in bombing Moamer Gaddafi’s forces.
A NATO-led airstrike killed 13 Libyan rebels in a “regrettable incident”, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday, in an increasingly chaotic battle with Muammar Gaddafi’s forces over the oil town of Brega. Meanwhile, US officials on Friday confirmed that American fighters, ground-attack aircraft and cruise missiles would be pulled out of the operation starting this weekend.
The move follows pledges by US President Barack Obama to quickly shift the lead to allies in the NATO-led coalition, with the US military playing a supporting role – providing planes for mid-air refueling, jamming and surveillance. “As we transition to a support role, our focus will be on providing enabling capabilities and not on strike capabilities,” a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
Despite the deaths on Friday night, the rebel leadership called for continued airstrikes against Gaddafi’s forces, who have reversed a rebel advance on the coastal road linking their eastern stronghold with western Libya. Hundreds of mostly young, inexperienced volunteers were later seen fleeing east from Brega towards the town of Ajdabiyah after coming under heavy mortar and machinegun fire.
A contingent of more experienced and better organised rebel units initially held their ground in Brega, but with most journalists forced east, it was unclear whether they had remained inside the town or had pulled back into the desert. A Reuters correspondent visiting the scene of the air strike saw at least four burnt-out vehicles including an ambulance by the side of the road near the eastern entrance to the town.
Men prayed at freshly dug graves covered by the rebel red, black and green flag nearby. “Some of Gaddafi’s forces sneaked in among the rebels and fired anti-aircraft guns in the air,” said rebel fighter Mustafa Ali Omar. “After that the NATO forces came and bombed them.” The strike killed 13 rebels and wounded seven, rebel leadership spokesman Hafiz Ghoga said, calling it a “regrettable incident”. “The military leadership is working on ways to prevent a recurrence,” Ghoga told reporters at the rebel headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Rebels at the scene said the bombing happened around 10pm local time (2000 GMT) on Friday. Another rebel spokesman, Mustafa Gheriani, told Reuters the leadership still wanted and needed allied air strikes. “You have to look at the big picture. Mistakes will happen. We are trying to get rid of Gaddafi and there will be casualties, although of course it does not make us happy.”
In Brussels, a spokeswoman for NATO, which this week assumed command of the military operation launched on March 19, said the alliance was looking into the reports. Gaddafi forces fired rockets on Brega overnight and fighting continued further west around the town’s university early on Saturday, rebels said.
But at the eastern gate of the town, dust rose from the road as volunteers known as the “shebab”, or youth, streamed away in cars after coming under heavy fire from Gaddafi’s forces. The volunteers have frequently fled under fire, raising questions about whether the rebels can make any headway against Gaddafi’s better-equipped and better-trained forces without greater Western military involvement.
Rebels have been trying to marshal their rag-tag units into a more disciplined force after a rebel advance along about 200 km (125 miles) of coast west from Brega was repulsed and turned into a rapid retreat this week. By mid-afternoon on Saturday, dozens of volunteer fighters were waiting with their pick-ups at a checkpoint east of Brega.
One Benghazi-based rebel said food supplies were acutely low in Misrata due to the siege. State-controlled Libyan television also said coalition forces bombarded “civilian and military locations” in western Libya late on Friday.
