Tag: Rebels

An international meeting on Libya agreed Thursday to set up a new fund to aid Libyan rebels, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...

Libyan rebels on Saturday rejected Muammar Gaddafi's offer for a ceasefire and negotiations if NATO stopped its attacks, saying the time for compromise had...

AJDABIYAH - Rebels came under fire on the outskirts of Ajdabiyah on Sunday, hemming them in to their eastern outpost and denting their hopes of pushing west to try to end a stalemate in the Libyan war.
One witness said he saw around a dozen rockets land around the western entrance to town, which rebels wanted to use as a staging post to retake the oil port of Brega. Many fled the attack as loud explosions boomed across the town.
"There are still some guys out there at the

BERLIN - NATO allies met in Berlin Thursday seeking to bridge differences over their campaign in Libya, as rebels fighting to topple Moamer Gaddafi reported an intensive bombing blitz by alliance warplanes. The port area of Libya's third city Misrata, meanwhile, came under heavy attack Thursday by Gaddafi's forces, who fired dozens of Grad missiles and tank shells which killed at least 13 people and injured 50, a rebel spokesman said. In Cairo, UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for a

BENGHAZI - Muammar Gaddafi accepted an African Union (AU) plan to end the Libyan civil war but rebels on Monday said there could be no deal unless he leaves power, and there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting. Rebels in the besieged western city of Misrata told Reuters Gaddafi's forces fired Russian-made Grad rockets into the city, while insurgents in eastern Libya were preparing to advance. South African President Jacob Zuma, head of an AU peace mission, said Gaddafi had

AJDABIYA - Libyan rebels hoping to reclaim the key eastern town of Ajdabiya from forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi milled around between a bombed-out tank and a bullet-riddled mosque on its outskirts Sunday.
The landmarks, a legacy of coalition air strikes and combat two weeks ago, and the sound fresh shelling on the far side of the city underlined how fortunes of war had turned against the insurgents in recent days. On Saturday, they had retreated in panic as Kadhafi's fighters

AJDABIYAH - A NATO air strike killed at least five rebels near the Libyan port of Brega on Thursday, medics said, and insurgents reported Muammar Gaddafi's forces killed five more in a bombardment of besieged Misrata.
Wounded rebels being brought to the hospital in Ajdabiyah in rebel-held east Libya said their position was hit by an air strike on Thursday outside the contested port.
"It was a NATO air strike on us. We were near our vehicles near Brega," wounded fighter

BREGA - Heavy fighting between Libyan rebels and forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi resumed on Sunday on the outskirts of the key oil town of Brega, an AFP journalist reported.
The rebels had claimed to have recaptured the town, 800 kilometres (500 miles) east of the capital Tripoli, on Saturday but pro-Kadhafi snipers were said to be still active and others were apparently holed up in the university.
Early on Sunday morning, the rebels pushed forward and were occupying the

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,

BREGA - At least 10 rebels were killed by a coalition air strike on Friday, fighters at the scene said on Saturday, in an increasingly chaotic battle with Muammar Gaddafi's forces over the oil town of Brega.
With the more experienced and better organised rebel army locked in combat with Gaddafi's forces, hundreds of young, inexperienced volunteers could be seen fleeing east towards Ajdabiyah, after coming under heavy mortar and machinegun fire.
A Reuters correspondent at the

PARIS/AJDABIYA - Libyan Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa arrived in Britain on Wednesday, telling the British government that he had resigned from his post, as disagreement over arming the rebels battling Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi emerged with at least three of the countries enforcing the no-fly zone over the country opposing the idea.
Russia also criticised the proposal, amid dissent within NATO over the conduct of the whole Libyan operation. Both France and the US have raised

WASHINGTON - US Ambassador to United Nations Susan Rice said on Tuesday that the Obama administration has not ruled out arming Libya's rebels as an option for trying to end Muammar Gaddafi's 41-year rule.
Speaking a day after President Barack Obama defended his Libya strategy in a televised address, Rice said Gaddafi has shown no sign of leaving power without continued pressure from Western powers that have imposed a no-fly zone over Libya and used air strikes to constrain his

Libya's rebel interim National Council said on Tuesday it would hold free and fair elections to ensure a transition to democracy if leader Muammar Gaddafi were forced from power.
The council, based in the rebel-held eastern city of Benghazi, said it aspired to create a "modern, free and united state" in a statement issued ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers in London to discuss the future of Libya.
The eight-point statement said the oil-producing north African nation's

BENGHAZI - Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi were retreating on Saturday after rebels recaptured the key eastern town of Ajdabiya in their first significant victory since the launch of the Western-led airstrikes a week ago. US President Barack Obama said the international mission had saved countless innocents from a "bloodbath" threatened by Gaddafi, and the rebels thanked France for its role in the military blitz but said "outside forces" could now leave the country.

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

CAIRO - Libya's rebel national council based in the country's east has named Mahmoud Jabril to head an interim government and pick ministers.
Jabril is a reformer who was once involved in a project to establish a democratic state in Libya. He is the head of a crisis committee to cover military and foreign affairs.