NATO pounds pro-Gadhafi forces' command centres amid criticism of overstepping m

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NATO pounds pro-Gadhafi forces' command centres amid criticism of overstepping

mandate

By Diaa Hadid,Slobodan Lekic, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 1 hour

27 minutes ago

TRIPOLI, Libya - NATO widened its campaign to weaken Moammar Gadhafi's regime

with airstrikes on desert command centres and sea patrols to intercept ships,

the military alliance said Saturday, amid signs of growing public anger over

fuel shortages in government-held territory.

In the coastal town of Zawiya, crowds apparently outraged by dwindling fuel

supplies tried to stab reporters in a minibus on a state-supervised trip to the

Tunisian border.

The journalists — a Chinese news correspondent and two Britons: a BBC technician

and a Reuters video producer — were not harmed in the attack, the first of its

kind targeting foreign reporters covering the Libyan conflict.

The assailants also attacked the government official accompanying the reporters

— once unimaginable in Libya and a sign of the growing frustrations of residents

struggling to cope with rising food prices and gasoline shortages.

Gadhafi has remained defiant against the widening NATO attacks and international

pressure to step down.

At the same time, however, NATO has come under increasing criticism that it is

overstepping the U.N. Security Council's mandate, which provides for the

protection of civilians but not for wider attacks. The Pan African Parliament,

the legislative body of the African Union, plans an emergency session next week

to discuss what it calls NATO's " military aggression. "

The latest reported NATO raids targeted a facility near the capital Friday and a

command and control hub near Sebha, a Gadhafi stronghold deep in Libya's

southwestern desert, a NATO statement said in Brussels. Three surface-to-air

missile launchers were hit near the government-held town of Sirte, and three

rocket launchers near the rebel-held town of Zintan in the mountains south of

Tripoli.

On Friday, NATO warplanes also bombed eight Libyan naval vessels in three ports,

leaving ships partially sunken and charred and showering docks with debris in

the military alliance's broadest attack on Gadhafi's navy.

NATO spokesman Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken said the vessels were " legitimate and

legal targets " because the Libyan navy had tried to mine the harbour at the

rebel-held port of Misrata and had attempted to carry out attacks on shipping

there.

Commandant Omran al-Forjani, head of Libya's coast guard, claimed the targeted

ships were used to patrol Libyan waters for boats carrying African migrants

trying to make the dangerous sea crossing to Europe and for search-and-rescue

operations.

A NATO task force has also boarded 47 vessels — including one on Friday — and

seven ships suspected of carrying arms have been diverted since the naval

operation started in mid-March.

The latest vessel to be boarded was identified as the MV Jupiter, NATO said

Saturday. The tanker, whose registration remained unclear, was carrying gasoline

and was instructed not to continue to Libya " because we had reason to believe it

was intended for military purposes " , a NATO official said.

" It's clear to NATO that Gadhafi's regime is diverting fuel to its war machine, "

said the official who could not be identified under standing rules.

The attack on the foreign journalists took place as their vehicle was caught in

a traffic jam caused by miles-long lines of cars waiting for days for fuel, the

journalists said.

Men from the fuel line smashed the bus door and approached the three reporters

with a kitchen knife and two others brandished pistols.

They demanded to know where the reporters were from and accused them of filming

the gas line. Attackers slashed the bus tires in an attempt to prevent the

reporters from fleeing.

Several plainclothes security agents fired into the air around the bus to drive

back the crowd. Another security man boarded the bus and pushed out the

attackers. Police led the bus to a nearby station for the reporters' safety.

Also Saturday, rights group Amnesty International said hundreds of men have

disappeared from Misrata, the rebels' main toehold in western Libya. The

London-based group said Libyan forces seized the men in house raids, from

mosques and from the front line where some of them were fighting.

The Amnesty staff, who are currently based in Misrata, cited the case of the

el-Toumi family. They said during a house raid on March 18, government forces

seized seven brothers, two cousins and an uncle, who are still missing.

The rights group said they interviewed one woman who said a soldier forced her

to pull up her dress. She said he fondled her, but was then hushed by her family

who did not want to bring attention to the case.

Libyan officials, meanwhile, have tried to portray the NATO attacks as hitting

civilian and other non-military targets.

Libyan officials in Tripoli took reporters to a government building that was

bombed earlier this week. The officials said the building's offices were used to

follow up on corruption cases, but NATO officials had described it as a " command

and control centre " — the standard description of most targets.

The building appeared to have some civilian use. Strewn, charred papers shoved

in an abandoned sack showed correspondence of officials trying to pursue small

corruption cases.

One paper dated Oct. 29, 2005, summoned a seller of expired medicines to give a

statement to authorities. A paper from July 7, 2010, urges education heads to

prevent cheating in exams. Another from Oct. 9, 2010, lists the problems that

delayed the building of 52 units for seven years and noted other overdue

projects.

" In whose interests is it to fight people who fight corruption? " asked a

government employee, Othman Baraka.

In Paris, France's Foreign Ministry said four Frenchmen held by Libyan rebel

forces on suspicion of spying have been released and are now in Egypt.

The four worked for a private security company and were detained by Libya's

rebel forces at a checkpoint on May 12 in Benghazi, the eastern Libya base for

rebel forces. A rebel commander at the time accused them of spying. The fifth

member of the group had died of wounds he suffered after being shot at the

checkpoint.

___

Lekic reported from Brussels.