Libya war reaching stalemate: U.S. general

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Libya war reaching stalemate: U.S. general

By Georgy Georgy – 32 mins ago

AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Libya's civil war is reaching stalemate, a senior

U.S. general said on Thursday, and rebels fighting to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi

said a NATO air strike killed five of their fighters.

Wounded rebels being brought to a hospital in Ajdabiyah in rebel-held east Libya

said they were hit by a NATO strike on their trucks and tanks outside the

contested port of Brega.

NATO said it was investigating an attack by its aircraft on a tank column in the

area on Thursday.

General Ham, head of U.S. Africa command, told a Senate hearing

Washington should not provide arms to the rebels without a better idea of who

they were.

Asked if there was an emerging stalemate, he replied: " I would agree with that

at present, on the ground. "

Medical workers carried blood-soaked uniforms from hospital rooms in Ajdabiyah,

gateway to the insurgent stronghold of Benghazi in the east, after wounded

fighters were ferried back from Brega.

" It was a NATO air strike on us. We were near our vehicles near Brega, " wounded

fighter Younes Jumaa said from a stretcher at the hospital.

Nurse Mohamed Ali said at least five rebels were dead.

Rebel fighters were weeping on their knees in the corridor.

" NATO are liars. They are siding with Gaddafi, " said Salem Mislat, one of the

rebels.

It was the second time in less than a week that rebels had blamed NATO for

bombing their comrades by mistake. Thirteen were killed in an air strike not far

from the same spot on Saturday.

A doctor who had been at the front among rebel ambulance crews said they were

hit by a government rocket attack immediately after the air strike. One medical

worker was killed.

The rebels have been fighting to seize control of Brega from forces loyal to

Gaddafi for a week in a see-saw battle along the Mediterranean coast.

Rebel spokesmen told Reuters Gaddafi forces killed five people and wounded 25 in

an artillery bombardment of the isolated and besieged western city of Misrata on

Wednesday.

The barrage forced the temporary closure of Misrata's port, a vital lifeline for

supplies to besieged civilians, the spokesmen said. They added that NATO air

strikes hit pro-Gaddafi positions around Misrata.

Misrata, Libya's third city, rose up with other towns against Gaddafi in

mid-February and has been under siege for weeks, after a violent crackdown put

an end to most protests elsewhere in the west of the country.

A rebel spokesman told Reuters people in Misrata were crammed five families to a

house in the few safe districts to escape a rain of mortar shells from Gaddafi

forces which have subjected them to weeks of sniper and artillery fire.

OIL PRODUCTION PLUNGES

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern about deteriorating

conditions for civilians in Misrata and Zintan in the west, and Brega in the

east.

He said the situation in Misrata was particularly grave and called for an end to

attacks on civilians.

The civil war has cut Libyan oil output by 80 percent, a senior government

official said on Thursday, as rebels and Gaddafi's forces traded charges over

who had attacked oil fields vital to both sides.

Rebels say government attacks on three different installations in the east have

halted production of the oil they need to finance the eight-week-old uprising

against Gaddafi.

The government's Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters the British

air force had damaged an oil pipeline in a strike against the Sarir oilfield

which killed three guards.

NATO denied the alliance carried out any air strikes in the Sarir area and said

forces loyal to Gaddafi were responsible for an attack which started a fire in

the oilfield. It said Gaddafi was trying to disrupt oil supplies to the

rebel-held port of Tobruk.

Shokri Ghanem, chairman of the government National Oil Corporation, told Reuters

on Thursday the country's production had fallen to 250,000 to 300,000 barrels

per day compared with 1.6 million before the uprising.

He called a reported shipment of Libyan oil by the rebels " very sad " and said it

would only contribute to tension and divide the country.

The Liberian-registered tanker Equator sailed from the port of Marsa el-Hariga,

near Tobruk, on Wednesday, apparently with the first cargo of crude sold by

rebels since their uprising began in February. Oil traders said the cargo, vital

to fund the uprising, was headed for China.

WESTERN BOUNDARY

There was confusion on Thursday about the fighting near Brega, but one rebel

fighter said government rockets had hit the town's western boundary.

Al Jazeera television said Gaddafi's forces were advancing on the town from the

coast and the desert and rebels were trying to reinforce its western approaches.

This could not immediately be confirmed.

Other insurgents said a 130-strong rebel force was about 25 km (15 miles) east

of Brega, which has been fought over for a week with neither side able to make

major gains.

A senior U.S. Treasury official said Washington had frozen more than $34 billion

of Libyan assets as part of sanctions against Gaddafi and his top officials.

European governments had also frozen a substantial amount he said.

Gaddafi appealed for a halt in the air campaign in a rambling three-page letter

to U.S. President Barack Obama bluntly dismissed by Secretary of State Hillary

Clinton on Wednesday.

" Mr. Gaddafi knows what he must do, " Clinton told a news conference with Italian

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, reiterating calls for a ceasefire, the

withdrawal of his forces from cities they have stormed and his departure from

Libya.

Civil war in the vast North African desert oil producer ignited in February when

Gaddafi tried to crush pro-democracy rallies against his 41-year-old rule

inspired by uprisings that have toppled or endangered other rulers across the

Arab world.

A senior aid worker said on Thursday desperate refugees from North Africa had

dragged each other under water and drowned when an overloaded migrant boat sank

off Sicily. Up to 250 people wre still missing from the capsized boat, which was

said to have left Libya on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Dziadosz in Benghazi, m Karouny in Beirut,

Hamid Ould Ahmed and Christian Lowe in Algiers and Marie-Louise Gumuchian in

Tunis, Phil and Lawder in Washington, a Pawlak in Brussels;

Writing by Barry Moody; Editing by Dobbie)