Tag: Libyan

AJDABIYAH - Libyan rebel fighters recaptured the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiyah after an all-night battle, but Muammar Gaddafi's forces still held the western gate.
Eveyrthing was destroyed last night by our forces," said rebel fighter Sarhag Agouri.
"Ajdabiyah is a ghost town. Now there are only dead bodies and families who don't know what to do. We are in the town but they still have the other gate," he said.
He said that the rebels attacked Gaddafi's forces at

TUNIS - Libyan rebels on Thursday killed 30 government snipers in the town of Misrata and Western warplanes hit military targets deep inside the country, as Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the command of Western military operations in Libya would be transferred from the US to NATO within a day or two.
"Compromise has been reached in principle in a very short time," Davutoglu told reporters. "The operation will be handed over to NATO completely." Earlier, a rebel

BENGHAZI/BRUSSELS - Libyan ground troops are being targeted by air strikes, coalition officials said on Wednesday, as a top British officer declared Moammer Gaddafi's air force effectively destroyed.
As bitter fighting raged in key rebel strongholds, NATO nations failed to agree on giving the Western alliance command of military operations in Libya, a NATO diplomat told AFP. "There was no agreement and the discussions continue," the diplomat said after a new round of talks among

LAHORE - Forces loyal to Moammar Gaddafi smashed through the last line of defence protecting the rebel capital of Benghazi Tuesday and now appear poised to crush the revolt as hope for international intervention wanes. Fleeing refugees confirmed the fall of Adjabiya, a strategic city that rebel leaders vowed just one day earlier would mark the bulwark of the revolution's stand again Gaddafi, came in a matter of bullet strewn hours.
As nightfall approached, anxiety gripped

ROME - Italy will seek the opinion of other European countries before deciding whether to recognise Libyan rebels as the country's legitimate representatives, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Thursday. Asked whether Italy would follow the French govt's lead on recognising Libya's opposition, Berlusconi told reporters at a press conference in Rome: "It's the view of a single government. "I think it is better for us to listen to the views of the entire European community," he

RAS JDIR - Troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi took the main square of Zawiyah on Wednesday, residents said, but rebels who pulled back under heavy assault vowed to counterattack. Al Jazeera satellite television said several members of Gaddafi's forces, including a general and a colonel, were killed in fighting that a local doctor said had claimed at least 40 lives and probably many more. Libyan state TV showed many dozens of what it said were loyalist demonstrators marching

TRIPOLI/BIN JAWAD - Libyan government forces unleashed fierce attacks on the western rebel stronghold of Zawiyah on Saturday, while in the east, rebels advanced on Muammar Gaddafi's home town of Sirte. Fighters in Zawiyah, just 50 kilometres west of Tripoli, repelled two attacks by pro-Gaddafi forces who used tanks and artillery. Dozens of rebels armed with rifles manned rooftops, watching nearby streets from behind piles of sandbags. Roads and side streets were barricaded with rebel

GENEVA - Heavily armed pro-regime forces are now manning the Libyan side of the border with Tunisia, and fewer than 2,000 people fled across on Thursday, the UN refugees agency said on Friday. "On previous days, between 10,000 and 15,000 fled every day into Tunisia. Yesterday less than 2,000 made it across the border," said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "UNHCR is very concerned that the security situation in Libya may be preventing people

LONDON - Foreigners told Thursday of hellish scenes in Tripoli as they fled the chaos engulfing Libya, with countries worldwide urgently trying to get their nationals out. Thousands of foreigners packed Tripoli's airport hoping to escape the widening crisis, with those who managed to leave describing anarchic scenes, with food and water supplies running low. Governments sent planes and ships in a bid to rescue their citizens from the mounting lawlessness as Libyan leader Moamer

LONDON - As the death toll in anti-government protests in Libya since Tuesday reached at least 173 on Sunday, Islamist gunmen stormed a military arms depot in Libya and a nearby port and seized numerous weapons and army vehicles after killing four soldiers, a security official said.
"There are 173 dead," Human Rights Watch (HRW) spokesman Tom Porteous said. "It's a conservative figure based on hospital sources in eastern Libya, Benghazi and three other places. It is a very