Libyan rebels say they have made gains in Misrata

TRIPOLI - Libyan rebels said they had made gains by driving return of the troops of Muammar Gaddafi on the edges of the East and West of the city of port of Misrata and encircling them at the airport.

The rebels, said Tuesday that they had taken also the town of Zareek, approximately 25 km (15 miles) West of Misrata, but were still trying to extinguish the fires caused by an attack by Government week last of fuel storage tanks.

Misrata, besieged by the forces of Gaddafi for eight weeks, is strategically important to the hopes of rebels to overthrow the Libyan leader, because it is the only city they hold in the West of the North African country.

NATO missile launched strike Tuesday in the region of Tripoli on targets which appeared to include composed of Gaddafi, said witnesses. NATO later said that he led a strike against a position of command and control of the Government in the capital.

After two months of rebellion related uprisings this year, in other Arab countries the war reached a stalemate. Rebels take Benghazi and other towns of the East of oil production, while the Government controls the capital and most of the West.

Thousands were killed in the fighting.

The Government says the rebels are armed criminals and militants for al-Qaeda and that the majority of the Libyans support Kadhafi, who has been in power since 1969.

It is not appeared in public since April 30, when an air strike by NATO on a house in the capital killed his youngest son and three grandchildren.

The rebels fight against the power of superior firepower of Gaddafi, said Government forces bombed a residential area outside the Misrata Tuesday and 100 rebel fighters were wounded in a separate bombing attack.

Rebels had surrounded forces of Gaddafi at the airport and an Academy of the air near the southernmost neighbourhood of al Ghiran, where the two parties fought battles Monday, a witness and a rebel spokesman said.

"The plan is to hunt airport Gaddafi forces and the Academy of the air force where they are now trapped,"rebel spokesman Abdelsalam said by telephone from Misrata.""

It is difficult to independently verify accounts of the events in Misrata.

"We continue to have success, but our weakness is that we do not hold on to areas take us in hand, said Abdelsalam.".

DILEMMA OF NATO

The proximity of the forces of Gaddafi of civilian areas difficult for NATO to fulfill its mandate of protecting civilians, Brig.-Gen. Claudio Gabellini, head of the Libya NATO mission operations officer, told journalists in Brussels.

He said that NATO has yet managed to destroy military targets more than 30 in Misrata since April 29.

"Pro-Gaddafi forces continued to bombard the citizens of Misrata with long range mortars and rockets, artillery indiscriminately firing explosive shells in the city", said Gabellini.

The Libyan Government says that the NATO intervention is an act of colonial aggression by the Western powers to steal oil reserves of the country.

The war has caused misery for tens of thousands forced to flee by land or by boat.

Aid agencies say witnesses reported a ship carrying 500 to 600 sinking people last weekend near Tripoli and that many bodies have been seen in the water.

Prior to this, about 800 people had disappeared since March 25, after trying to escape from the Libya, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees. Most were from sub-Saharan Africa.

Libyan officials said Tuesday four children were injured, two of them seriously, by shrapnel of glass caused by explosions of NATO strikes of the day to the next.

Officials showed foreign journalists a hospital in the capital, where some Windows were smashed, apparently by the waves from the explosion of a NATO strike that toppled a nearby communications tower.

Journalists have also been taken to a building housing the High Commission for children, which had been completely destroyed by the Government. The old colonial building was damaged, in what officials said was a NATO bombardment on April 30.

"The direction of at least an explosion suggests composed of Gaddafi has been taken to target," said a witness.

Libyan officials, said that the Government released 120 prisoners rebel on Tuesday. A journalist of Reuters in Tripoli saw men join their families at an event organized in the Government.

Jets carry out heavy shelling in the Libyan capital

TRIPOLI- Jets screamed low over Tripoli early Tuesday, making a series of strikes in quick succession, after witnesses reported two near offices of State media a few hours before.

Jets carried out eight strikes in about three hours in an exceptionally large bombing of Tripoli, which is usually hit by strikes more than two or three at a time.

Four explosions rocked the capital Jamahiriya shortly after 2: 00 pm (0000 GMT) on Tuesday, shaking the Windows of a hotel of journalists. They were quickly followed by two more explosions.

Sirens and screams could be heard in the distance after the airstrikes, sporadic firing of assault rifles and heavy weapons sounds and jets continued to fly over the city.

Late Monday, witnesses reported two explosions in the capital as jets flew overhead, adding that smoke increased from a site near the offices of Libyan television news agency and State JANA.

At least a strike hit a building that already was bombed on 30 April, a minder on a trip sponsored by the Government for the site said, adding that the building housed various organizations of civil society.

The roof of the part of the building was blown along a wall, and the basement was visible through the destroyed floor. A guard on the site, said that the building was hit around 11: 00 pm (2100 GMT).

Soaring telecommunications tower is sitting in a parking lot near the building.

There is no case of losses in strikes on Monday.

The explosions came after NATO Chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said time is short for leader Libyan Moamer Kadhafi, who "should achieve, sooner than later, that there is no future for him or his regime.".

An international coalition began to operate against the pro-Gaddafi attacks, on 19 March, by resolution of the United Nations to protect civilians. NATO took command of operations on the Libya on March 31.

The Libyan regime, said on May 1 that Seif al-Arab al-Gaddafi, a son of Libyan leader, and three of his grandchildren were killed in an air attack on NATO on a compound in Tripoli.

The regime has called the strike a bid to assassinate Kadhafi.

For the Libyan rebels, border crossing is strategic price

DHUHEIBA border crossing, Libya - an old Libyan rebel for 18 years with an assault rifle supported against his knee scans a string of mountains through binoculars for signs of troops of Muammar al-Gaddafi.

He keeps the border Dhuheiba crossing, a strategic conduct for the rebels to send their families and their wounded in Tunisia and move the supplies in cities in the West the Libya Nafusa mountains.

Since the rebels captured the crossing at April 21, Gaddafi loyalists tried repeatedly to resume, it bombing of nearby mountains, most recently during the weekend, but the rebels held their ground.

Their red, green and black pre-Gaddafi flag flutters proudly on the border post. A motley crew of civilians-turned-fighters directs traffic from the border and records the names of those passing through. On Sunday, they opened a path for a race of ambulance of the Tunisian side with wounded from Zintan, a city of mountain where 10 rebels were killed and 30 wounded during a battle of weekend with the forces of the regime.

Control of the crossing has transformed Tunisia into a rear base and helps the rebels hold against the troops of Gadhafi - in the mountains with the coastal town of Misrata the only area of resistance in the West of the Libya.

Thousands of women and children of Nafusa cities found refuge in camps and with families in Tunisia. Wounded veterans are treated free of charge in the Tunisian hospitals. Trucks delivering supplies of Tunisia to Nafusa.

Tunisia has tried to avoid taking sides, attention to not have drawn into the conflict only four months after that his own successful revolt triggered a wave of revolt against the Government of the Arab world. The Libya rebellion against Gaddafi broke out just a month after their dictator of long date, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali launched the Tunisian.

"We will not to get involved in a war with a country confronted with big problems", Minister Tunisian Béji Caid Essebsi said Sunday on Tunisian television.

Stay on the sidelines not always possible, however. Dozens of shells have exceeded their targets, including one on Saturday, 80 landing in Tunisia, near the town of Dhuheiba of the border. After an attempt failed to resume the crossing last month, Libyan forces in armoured vehicles fled to Tunisia, have been disarmed by Tunisian and returned troops in Libya.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Tunisia summoned Ambassador Libyan two weeks earlier and required that the Gaddafi regime respects the Tunisian sovereignty. Over the weekend, he deplored a "lack of seriousness of the commitment made by the Libyan authorities."

Libyan and rebel civilians, Tunisia offers a brief respite from the trauma of the war.

Small clinic in the Dhuheiba, now led by the Tunisian army, is the first stop for the injured before they are taken to Tunisian hospitals later.

On Sunday, a 28 from years of Zintan was brought in with blood filter a dirty bandage on his right hand. He had been shot towards the end of a battle a day Saturday, which said, ended with the forces of Gaddafi being pushed back.

The Hunter, a waistcoat of camouflage on her white dress traditional, said the rebels were better motivated than their enemies because they were defending their homes.

"I am also fighting for a better life", he said, noting that it is unemployment despite a university degree in business administration.

Like other Libyan interviewed on the border, he spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by the Gaddafi regime.

Most of the men of Zintan have joined the fight, he said, including her 57-year old father. The old man was also wounded Saturday, a ball in the basin and arrives at Dhuheiba in the same ambulance as his son.

Clinical of Zintan is submerged and underequipped, said the young man, suggesting that combatants who died Saturday were recorded with appropriate treatment.

Random bombing of civilian areas and persistent rumours that Gaddafi rape of women troops pushed thousands flee Nafusa region. More than 50,000 Libyan have streamed in the South of the Tunisia by the passage of Dhuheiba since the fighting began in mid-February, said Andrew Harper of the UN refugee agency.

The New York - based Human Rights Watch said the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, such as a boss, violate the laws of war. He said Libyan refugees Nafusa region has been "consistent and credible accounts" such attacks.

Moussa Ibrahim Libyan Government spokesman rejected the report. "Human Rights Watch needs to grow up," said, and "" stop us crimes accusing sitting somewhere in Europe... listen to suspicious telephone calls by some eyewitnesses false. "" He said that the Group should establish an Office in Tripoli.

Several tents for refugees camps have been implemented in Tunisian cities, including Ramada, about 25 miles (40 km) from the border.

Remada camp, about 20 women sitting on the floor of a larger communal tent watched TV, updates to the Libya waiting on Al Jazeera.

A girl of 14 years, sitting cross-legged, had draped a flag homemade rebel on his shoulders, saying: he he comforted. The girl, who gave his first name: Sarah, said to his father and most of the male parents remained in Nalut fight, adding that she had not heard of them since she and others had fled two weeks ago. Nalut, stories of rape that she had heard of Western Libyan cities that have fallen to the forces of Gaddafi keep her awake at night, she said.

In another tent, stifling the Sun of the desert and swarms of flies, a 17-year-old girl said that she spoke last of her fiancé of 24 years, one of Veterans Zintan, a week ago. Three of his brothers have also joined the battle, she said. A day earlier, she learned that a cousin had been killed.

More than 3,000 refugees are in camps, but most are in Tunisian homes. Family ties reached the border - many sides belong to the ethnic minority Berbers - but other Tunisian invited foreigners in their homes. Generosity is particularly remarkable because the region is one of the poorest in Tunisia, with double-digit unemployment.

In the town of Tataouine, a group of volunteers said he found host for refugees 805 families and gives them basic products such as noodles, milk, layers and mattresses, all given. The UN also began to distribute supplies, and representatives of aid stated that the international community must do more for refugees.

Back at the border post, Professor of computer science Morad Hamed and engineer Morad Mehdi former presidents sat, also mount the guard, their rifles at their sides. Wearing a jacket with the insignia of the club of football of Chelsea, Hamed, 28, said he misses his old life and his wife pregnant, which he has not seen for two months.

But he added that there is no going back.

"We are fighting for our freedom," he said.

Libyan forces destroy fuel tanks Misrata: rebels

TRIPOLI - the Libyan Government forces destroyed four tanks and together several others were set on fire in rebel-held Misrata, a blow to the ability of the city of port to withstand a head of Government, rebel, said Saturday.

The attack on the city from the West came as artillery shells fired by forces loyal to Muammar al-Gaddafi fell in Tunisia in an escalation of fighting near the border with the rebels while trying to put an end to the rule of Gaddafi more of four decades.

Misrata, the last remaining town in the West under rebel control, besieged for more than two months and has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Rebels gave various accounts of bombings but said he struck the fuel used for export and domestic consumption.

"Four (tanks) were totally destroyed and a huge fire broke out which now distributes for the other four. We cannot shut down because we do not have the right tools, "rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan said to Reuters.

"Now the city will face a major problem." Those who were the only sources of fuel for the city. These tanks could have kept the city for three months with enough fuel, "he said by telephone."

Video of the incident, posted on YouTube by Libyan students Misrata showed firefighters turning on a light in a futile attempt to turn off water pipes.

Government forces last month flew on Misrata, at least a reconnaissance helicopter mission according to the rebels.

The NATO coalition aircraft were bombing of military targets of Libyan Government and do enforce a no fly zone by resolution of the United Nations. Western and Arab countries this week agreed to provide rebels with millions of dollars in aid non-military to help keep services and the economy running.

Rebels have long been demanding more weapons formed from the Libyan leader and heavy on the better-armed forces.

The head of the rebel forces in Libya is retracted a statement by a spokesman for rebels that the Italy had agreed to provide weapons to help in their fight to force Qaddafi.

"We have not received weapons, no the Italy, nor any other country," Abdel Fattah Younes said al-Jazeera television. "Perhaps one of the brothers did not to express themselves correctly... We apologize for the Italy for the brothers in the National Council.".

A spokesman for the National Council of transition rebels told a press conference of Benghazi with earlier in the day that weapons would be offered to the insurgents soon.

In Rome, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that no agreement was reached.

Italy submitted by the rebels, formally recognizing the Transitional Council as the legitimate representatives of the country, but it is unlikely that he would go further than the other countries of the anti-Gaddafi coalition.

FIGHTING IN BORDER

Fighting intensified in the region of the mountains of the West of the Libya as Gaddafi loyalists and rebels backed by the NATO bombing has reached impasse on other fronts in the civil war.

Government forces surrounding the Zintan rebels holding fired rockets 300 in the town on Saturday, rebel spokesman Abdulrahman al-Zintani, said. He gave no details of casualties in Zintan, which is largely empty of civilians.

"You can hear the NATO planes, but no there were no air strikes" al-Zintani told Reuters.

The Tunisian city of Dehiba was struck several times by stray shells in recent weeks, and on Saturday Tunisia condemned the bombing "extremely dangerous" and said that he would take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty.

The Libyan Government has denied targeting deliberately Tunisian soil.

"We said this (bombing) was a mistake and we have presented excuses that this took place and asked the military to ensure that it happen again," Minister Libyan Al - Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi told a press conference in Tripoli.

The battle is over the border crossing Dehiba-Wazzin, whose control gives the rebels a road to the outside world in strongholds in the mountains of the Western region. The Gaddafi forces control a plu passage far to the North.

Saturday the Dehiba schools were evacuated and residents to safety that nearly 100 mortars and missiles fell. The Crackle of small arms and large arms fire could be heard about 4 km in the Libya, said a witness for Reuters at the border.

"We are very afraid." The missiles are falling right around us, we know not what to do, "said Tunisian Mohammed Naguez, a resident of Dehiba." "Our children are afraid." The Tunisian authorities have stop this. ?

Most of the inhabitants of Western mountains belong to the Berber ethnic group and are distinguished from other Libyan. They have increased until there is two months and say of cities such as Zintan and Yafran, often bombed by the forces of Gaddafi, are far from food, water and medicine.

The civil war during the rule of Gaddafi has divided the desert-producing state of oil in a dedicated sector West by the Government around the capital, Tripoli, and a region held by rebel forces undisciplined but.

The revolt is the bloodiest yet against the leaders anchored long across the Middle East and the North Africa, which saw the overthrow of the Presidents veteran of the Tunisia and the Egypt.

Libyan refugees flee fighting by land and sea (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar al-Gaddafi is forcing thousands of refugees to flee West of the Libya walk up to the Tunisian border and by ship to Europe, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Rebels said that more than 40 Grad rockets had struck the city rebel-held Zintan in the mountains of the West late Tuesday, and aid deliveries to the port of Misrata West was hindered by artillery fire and minesnear the entrance of the port.

The rebel spokesman said fighting had flared again in the suburb of Misrata, but that of intense air strikes by NATO planes appeared to have won the port, lifeline of the city, a respite in the shelling by forces loyal to the Libyan leader.

In Tripoli, witnesses heard two explosions strong late Tuesday, but no there was no explanation for their cause.

Kadhafi, who took power in a 1969 coup, was not observed in public since an attack by NATO missile Saturday on a house in Tripoli which killed his youngest son and three grandchildren.

Kaim of Khaled Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs said Kadhafi was alive and in good health and had "not at all" was wounded in the NATO strike. "He now meets a number of tribal leaders," said Kaim.

Asked if Kadhafi would appear publicly in the questions on the issue of whether he survived the explosion, said Kaim "it is him, his people of security..." It has taken to target four times. ?

Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, in his strongest public comments yet on the struggle for power in Libya, said "Gaddafi should resign immediately and leave administration for the Libyan people."

"The Libya is not the property of a single person or family", Erdogan told a press conference in Istanbul, appeal to Kadhafi to understand how his people were suffering. Erdogan has been urging Kadhafi quit since early March.

EXODUS OF THE MOUNTAINS

Refugees UNHCR, the UN agency said that an exodus of the mountains of the Western region resumed, with the Libyan families flee to the South of the Tunisia.

"The end of last week, more than 8,000 people, most of them ethnic Berber arrive Dehiba in the South of the Tunisia." Most are women and children, "spokesman for the UNHCR Adrian Edwards said a press briefing in Geneva." Tens of thousands have already fled.

Dehiba crossing point has changed hands several times in the last week, the fighting spilling Tunisian soil.

A sand storm that struck the region had been the most difficult situation. "The storm destroyed hundreds of tents and two huge portable warehouses," said Edwards.

"Most of the Libyan refugees leave the Libya tribal groups." Many choose to stay in the camps for a few days before moving on to stay with the Tunisian families, "he says.

During this time, more people have been fleeing the Libya by sea in Italy, after a break of 10 days due to bad weather conditions.

While a few rebel pockets such as Zintan and Misrata resist Gaddafi forces in the West of the Libya, is largely held by the rebels the most urgent is the cash to try to restore infrastructure and put in place a viable administration.

Rebels said that they expected billions of dollars in credit soon Western Governments to feed and provide their territories to the East and to support their campaign against Gaddafi.

Ali Tarhoni, head of the Finance of the national Council of the rebel Committee, said that wait for France, Italy and the United States to extend credit secured against the frozen assets of the Libyan State.

THE ECONOMY IN TATTERS

With the economy of the Libya in tatters after more than two months of the civil war, funds to pay for food, medicine and treatments of State which depend most people are running low.

"We discovered are still different segments that must be paid that we thought were paid," Tarhoni told journalists in the stronghold of the rebels in the East of Benghazi.

"At every single point that another necessity is felt in terms of food, medicine and people who are injured", he said. "I need about 2-3 billion dollars and we hope to get most or all this.".

British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said countries in the contact group would discuss establishing a temporary financial mechanism to the talks in Rome this week for the Libya.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament there were "possibilities for tightening of sanctions on such things as oil and petroleum products to ensure that this regime... realizes he cannot go terrorizing his own people."

President Nicolas Sarkozy told the French weekly L'Express that France planned to organise a Conference of the "friends" of the Libya, including defectors and various political groups, to try to build a solution policy.

Insurgents had hoped a rapid reversal of Gaddafi, but its forces ASB better trained and immediately stopped the advance towards rebel West of their stronghold of Benghazi and forced a stalemate in the fighting.

The International Organization for migration, said that a ship assistance was still waiting off the coast of Misrata for mines to be cleared prior to delivery of supplies and foreign evacuees and injured Libyan. NATO said its minesweepers destroyed two mines laid by Government forces and were looking for a third party.

Libyan, fight against spills in Tunisia (The Christian Science Monitor)

Dehiba, Tunisia - the civil war of the Libya in the South of the Tunisia Friday as scores of troops loyal to the bursting of the colonel Muammar Qathafi across the border and in a town nearby. The incursion came after the failure of the loyalists to return to a remote border post, which has become a rebel lifeline.

Two Libyan Government rockets landed in the Tunisian city of Dehiba and angry residents attack one of the Libyan military vehicles with stones, causing it and its anti-aircraft gun to overturn, killing the driver.

The presence of the armed forces blasting their guns in a neighbouring country would have been an international incident nowhere elsewhere. But the ebb and flow of this conflict - and the porous desert border between the Libya and the Tunisia - means that the Tunisian authorities could do little to stop the incursion. The military Tunisia and the border police is removed entirely from their border posts during the heaviest fighting late Thursday.

Uplift Libya: 5 steps the world takes

Rebel flag was raised again to that position on Friday morning, the final result of an attack by the forces of Colonel Gaddafi three-pronged began Thursday afternoon. The battle was initially loyalist victory - and a farm of their green flag for the first time since the rebels took control here a week ago.

Battle at the border.

But a fierce battle that stretched into the night saw loyalist troops surround and finally forced to flee, with 162 entering Tunisia with 18 vehicles.

The Tunisian army disarmed the Libyans, but then escorted back to a point of illegal crossing frequented by smugglers. The Loyalists surrendered their weapons and should resume their fight.

"Dehiba is very important for the [anti-Qathafi] revolutionaries for resupply - they are battling for the corner," said Samir Abdelmounem, a Tunisian doctor who treated the injured rebels and loyalists Qathafi both Dehiba hospital.

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"And this population feels great solidarity with [the rebels], as they are family," explains Dr. Abdelmounem. The Tunisians "hate Qathafi soldiers, they have a horror of them".

Tunisian soldiers have been posted from the hospital, he said, because "people wanted to come here and finish their".

Two Dehiba homes, a few kilometres from the border, were hit by Libyan rockets. Stray bullets struck a Libyan refugee boy in the foot and injured a Tunisian man.

Surprise attack

Rebels said that they were surprised at the attack by the forces of Qathafi and said that they had hired local guides in the difficult mountainous desert and provide details of force rebel and location.

"Even the Nalutis [local sections of the nearest Libyan town of Nalut]" were surprised: how come this way? ", says a rebel named Wajdi who works on the Tunisian side of the border."

"The rebels learned something this.". We will never leave this low area once again, "said Wajdi." Or they will depend on NATO aid: Wajdi has been in direct contact with NATO during the fighting, providing details in real time of possible targets.

"I was talking to their live... and nothing," said Wajdi. "" "". "Unfortunately provide us the information, but we continue long wait for a response."

As he spoke, a column of black smoke rose from the Libyan side of the border, where rebels burn clothing and personal effects of LOYALISTS fleeing Qathafi. A Loyalist dead had his toes tied together, apparently to prevent him to flee before his death.

For the months of two and a half years, rebel in remote mountains of Western the Libya, which are dominated by ethnic Berbers that have always challenged rule Qathafi, took up arms to join the anti-Government revolution.

Crucial passage for the rebels

This crossing has played an important role. Capture of rebels it a week ago has been a blow to Tripoli and stimulate their supply of long-hampered, leading to a boost in the fight against the rebels.

Members of the Tunisian National Guard thought some Qathafi Loyalists who crossed Friday were intended to tackle a Libyan refugee on the edge of the Dehiba camp.

Failed, but there was drama at Dehiba hospital, where wounded soldiers Qathafi 12 have been taken, with three rebel wounded. Doctors were struck by the fact the loyalist troops seemed so young, and that two have been traumatized while they tried to flee to the arrival and had to be captured by the Tunisian soldiers.

Hospital staff immediately separated the rebels and loyalists in two different wings of the building. Abdelmounem has explained: "it is therefore that we have not any more problems we already have".

Uplift Libya: 5 steps the world takes