Gadhafi showers strategic oil port with rockets

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Gadhafi showers strategic oil port with rockets

By PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press Schemm, Associated Press – 19 mins ago

RAS LANOUF, Libya – Government forces drove hundreds of rebels from a strategic

oil port with a withering rain of rockets and tank shells on Thursday,

significantly expanding Moammar Gadhafi's control of Libya as Western nations

struggled to find a way to stop him.

France became the first country to recognize the rebels' governing council, and

an ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy said his government was planning " targeted

operations " to defend civilians if the international community approves.

The Obama administration said it was suspending relations with the Libyan

embassy in Washington and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she

would meet with opposition leaders in the U.S., Egypt and Tunisia.

But there was no concrete sign of Western moves toward military assistance such

as the no-fly zone that the rebels pleaded for as they retreated through the

pancake-flat desert scrubland outside the port of Ras Lanouf, scanning the skies

for government warplanes.

The fleeing rebels said government forces showered rockets and tank shells on

Ras Lanouf in preparation for a full-scale advance. Lightly armed opposition

members sped back to their territory by the hundreds, fleeing eastward in cars

and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.

A rebel official in the town of Ajdabiya inside opposition territory said

Gadhafi's troops and tanks were battling the insurgents at the western entrance

to Ras Lanouf and using gunboats to fire on the rebels from the sea.

" These are tough battles, " said Akram al-Zwei, a member of the post-uprising

town committee. " We are fighting against four battalions heavily equipped with

airpower, tanks, missiles, everything. "

He added that the rebels are fighting alongside the Saaiqa 36 Battalion, which

had been based in Benghazi but defected to the opposition.

Taking back Ras Lanouf would be a major victory for Gadhafi, reestablishing his

power over a badly damaged but vital oil facility and pushing his zone of

control further along the main coastal highway running from rebel territory to

the capital, Tripoli.

A rebel governing council spokesman said Gadhafi's air force, army and navy had

bombarded Ras Lanouf, targeting the main hospital, mosques and civilian areas.

" The regime that has lost legitimacy is practicing a scorched earth policy, "

spokesman Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga said. " We have requested for all steps to be taken

to protect the Libyan people. We believe the U.N. can do that. "

The rebel hospital in the eastern town of Brega said four were confirmed dead in

the fighting, 35 were wounded and 65 were missing.

The international Red Cross said dozens of civilians have been wounded or killed

in recent days in grueling battles between Gadhafi's army and the opposition.

" We need help from the international community, but we just hear promises, " said

Mohammed Ali Al Zuaiee, a 48-year-old rebel fighter. " They are doing nothing. "

The main hospital in Ras Lanouf was hit by artillery or an airstrike and the

rebels are pulling their staff out and evacuating patients to the towns of Brega

and Ajdabiya, said Gebril Hewada, a doctor on the opposition's health committee

in the main eastern city of Benghazi.

France said it planned to exchange ambassadors with the rebels' Interim

Governing Council after Sarkozy met with two representatives of the group based

in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

" It breaks the ice, " said Mustafa Gheriani, an opposition spokesman. " We expect

Italy to do it, and we expect England to do it. "

French activist-intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy sat in the meeting and said

France was planning " targeted operations " to defend civilians if the interim

council demands them and the international community approves. Henri-Levy did

not elaborate and the French government declined to comment, so it was not clear

if Henri-Levy was describing a new, more aggressive plan for intervention.

NATO has said it is planning a no-fly zone but would only act with the approval

of the UN Security Council, which diplomats say would hinge on the OK of African

and Arab countries. Britain and France have backed the rebels' calls for a

no-fly zone, but the Obama adminstration has expressed deep reservations about

involvement in another conflict in the greater Middle East.

NATO said it had started round-the-clock surveillance of the air space over

Libya, and British Foreign Secretary Hague said a meeting of EU foreign

ministers would discuss how to isolate the regime.

Germany said it froze billions in assets of the Libyan Central Bank and other

state-run agencies. The U.S., UK, Switzerland, Austria and other countries have

also frozen Gadhafi's assets.

" The brutal suppression of the Libyan freedom movement can now no longer be

financed from funds that are in German banks, " Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle

said.

The Libyan government tried to stave off tough action, sending envoys to Egypt,

Portugal and Greece.

In the west, Gadhafi claimed victory in recapturing Zawiya, the city closest to

the capital that had fallen into opposition hands. Western journalists based in

Tripoli were taken late Wednesday to a stadium on the outskirts of Zawiya that

was filled with Gadhafi loyalists waving green flags and launching fireworks.

Libyan TV cameras filmed the celebrations as food, drinks and cooking oil were

distributed.

Government escorts refused journalists' requests to visit the city's main

square.; phone lines there have not been working during a deadly, six-day siege.

Red Cross President Jakob Kellenberger said local doctors over the past few days

saw a sharp increase in casualties arriving at hospitals in Ajdabiya, in the

rebel-held east, and Misrata, in government territory.

Both places saw heavy fighting and air strikes, he said.

Kellenberger said 40 patients were treated for serious injuries in Misrata and

22 dead were taken there.

He said the Red Cross surgical team in Ajdabiya operated on 55 wounded over the

past week and " civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence. "

He said the aid organization is cut off from access in western areas including

Tripoli but believes those are " even more severely affected by the fighting "

than eastern rebel-held territories.

______

Zeina Karam in Cairo, Heilprin in Geneva, Elaine Ganley in Paris, Don

Melvin in Brussels and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report.

[Guest guest]

And a pipeline was cut in Iraq.

If they were serious about taking Gadhafi out, all it would take is a couple of planes with smart bombs. Reagan only just missed killing him, something I blame on Spain and France for not letting our planes fly over their territory. However, I'm not sure any nation will take that step since it could be seen as setting a precedent for assassinating national leaders.

In a message dated 3/10/2011 12:45:48 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

Gadhafi showers strategic oil port with rockets

[Guest guest]

And a pipeline was cut in Iraq.

If they were serious about taking Gadhafi out, all it would take is a couple of planes with smart bombs. Reagan only just missed killing him, something I blame on Spain and France for not letting our planes fly over their territory. However, I'm not sure any nation will take that step since it could be seen as setting a precedent for assassinating national leaders.

In a message dated 3/10/2011 12:45:48 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

Gadhafi showers strategic oil port with rockets