NATO Airstrike Reportedly Kills Rebels in Libya

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/world/africa/03libya.html?partner=rss & emc=rss

NATO Airstrike Reportedly Kills Rebels in Libya

By C. J. CHIVERS and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: April 2, 2011

BREGA, Libya — A NATO airstrike intended for the forces of Col. Muammar

el-Qaddafi apparently killed at least eight rebel fighters in the battle outside

this pivotal oil port, an ambulance driver and news reports said Saturday.

The deaths underscored the challenge that the Western allies and the rebels face

in relying on airstrikes to push back the Qaddafi forces as the two sides mix in

the battle zone along the front.

Perhaps in response to the Western airstrikes, the Qaddafi forces are

increasingly plunging into combat in equipment similar to what the rebels are

using, mainly pickup trucks mounted with machine guns or artillery. The move

makes it increasingly difficult for even the combatants to distinguish one group

from the other at first sight.

NATO, which said Saturday that it had conducted 148 airstrike sorties in the

previous 24 hours, said it was investigating the episode, according to news

reports.

News services reported other rebels grieving for their dead. A rebel spokesman

said he could not confirm that the dead were rebels, but he called for continued

airstrikes.

" You have to look at the big picture, " the spokesman, Mustafa Gheriani, told

Reuters. " Mistakes will happen. We are trying to get rid of Qaddafi, and there

will be casualties, although of course it does not make us happy. "

The strike occurred after dark on Friday as rebels were continuing their efforts

to retake Brega. The Qaddafi forces had positioned forward observers in the

desert outside of the city with a view of the road, enabling their superior

artillery crews within Brega to hit the rebels as they tried to approach.

A group of about four rebel trucks had entered a no man's land of close fighting

between the lines of the two sides, where they mixed with similar trucks of the

Qaddafi militia. Around 8:30 p.m., several allied strikes were heard at the

front.

A rebel ambulance driver who arrived at the scene about an hour later said he

found only the blackened remains of the four trucks and eight or nine bodies so

badly burned and mangled by the explosion that he could not determine the exact

number.

" I saw the fire, and the bodies, eight or nine bodies, " said the driver, Ackmed

al-shi. " They were totally burned. "

At Benghazi's hospital, Brahim Fahim al-Oraybey, a 19-year-old rebel fighter,

said he had been wounded in the blast. His right leg was amputated below the

knee, and he was badly burned across his face, back, shoulders and hands. He

said there had been six vehicles, including an ambulance, in front of him in a

convoy when the explosion struck. He had been riding in a white pickup with a

machine gun mounted on the back, a favorite combat configuration of both the

rebels and Colonel Qaddafi's forces. He said he saw a local shepherd who lost

both arms in the blast, but his fate was not clear.

Around the scene of the airstrikes, rebel fighters speculated that Colonel

Qaddafi's forces had infiltrated the rebel lines and fired at the planes, or

that celebrating rebels shooting guns into the air had drawn the allied fire.

Here on the eastern front and in the besieged western city of Misurata, rebel

fighters said Saturday that they were anxious about what they perceived as a

slowdown in the airstrikes, enabling Colonel Qaddafi to hold on as his forces

regroup and advance.

The battle lines remained largely unchanged, centered to the east of Brega, as

the fighting continued Saturday. A few rebels had established a light presence

in the city, near the university, but the Qaddafi forces remained in solid

control. Although airstrikes have taken out some of the Qaddafi forces' tanks

and heavy weapons, the militia had evidently held back some of its military

equipment in the relatively dense urban area, where the NATO forces cannot

strike without the risk of civilian casualties.

In Washington, two lawmakers, Senator McCain, an Arizona Republican, and

Senator ph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, argued in an opinion

column in The Wall Street Journal that Western forces should refocus their

airstrikes on toppling Colonel Qaddafi, moving beyond the initial mandate to

protect Libyan civilians.

" A successful outcome in Libya requires the departure of Gadhafi as quickly as

possible, " the senators wrote, using an alternate spelling for Qaddafi. " It is

not in our interest for Libya to become the scene of a protracted stalemate that

will destabilize and inflame the region. "

They continued, " The battlefield reversals suffered by the opposition this

week, when weather conditions hampered coalition airstrikes, underscore the need

for a more robust and coherent package of aid to the rebel ground forces. "

As a stalemate held in the eastern front, the capital, Tripoli, remained under a

tight lockdown. A panic set off by the defection of the Qaddafi confidant Moussa

Koussa eased slightly as only one other high-level official appeared to have

fled in his wake. According to former government officials, guards were

preventing others from leaving.

One senior official who had said he planned to travel to Egypt to pick up family

members canceled his trip, telling reporters that he delayed it because of a

paperwork problem.

There was no word on the details of talks in London by a senior aide to one of

Colonel Qaddafi's sons, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, though British officials said

the aide had returned to Libya.

In an informal currency market in the old city of Tripoli, traders said Libyan

dinars were selling for less than half their value just a month ago. Colonel

Qaddafi has flooded the economy with new money by providing a 500-dinar subsidy

to each family and pay raises to all soldiers, apparently in an effort to

bolster his support. And, currency traders said in recent days, many are hedging

against the long-term survival of the Qaddafi government as well.

C.J. Chivers reported from Brega and D. Kirkpatrick from Tripoli. Kareem

Fahim contributed reporting from Benghazi.

[Guest guest]

In Korea and Vietnam, the enemy would try to get as close as they could to our forces to prevent the use of airpower and artillery on them. Looks like Qaddafi's forces are beginning to do the same. Perhaps that is one reason Obama is sending in CIA and SF teams to act as forward observers. Other articles have said that the rebels are starting to act more like a real military. That could mean such support has already reached them and is getting them in shape.

I'm still leery of the whole mess though. Looking at Egypt it is likely that the government that arises won't be friendly to the US or the West. I am concerned we are setting up for a much larger war. Then again, Keynsians and Fisherites are running the show and they probably believe that the war spending of WWII revived the economy. Maybe they are trying to set the stage for such a war and the anti-civil liberties crowd it right there with them.

In a message dated 4/2/2011 2:26:29 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

The deaths underscored the challenge that the Western allies and the rebels face in relying on airstrikes to push back the Qaddafi forces as the two sides mix in the battle zone along the front. Perhaps in response to the Western airstrikes, the Qaddafi forces are increasingly plunging into combat in equipment similar to what the rebels are using, mainly pickup trucks mounted with machine guns or artillery. The move makes it increasingly difficult for even the combatants to distinguish one group from the other at first sight.