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| Africa North |
| Libya forces retreat after air raids |
| 2011-03-22 |
| [Al Jazeera] Libyan government forces have fallen back from the rebel-held city of Benghazi, following air raids by Western-led forces. Rebel fighters on Monday tried to follow up the retreat by forces loyal to Muammar Qadaffy, the Libyan leader, advancing from positions some five to 10km from Ajdabiya. But they retreated in disarray when they came under heavy fire from Qadaffy forces in Ajdabiya. Tony Birtley, Al Jizz's correspondent, reporting from an area close to Ajdabiya said there was fierce fighting in outside the city. "There's been heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... and heavy shelling going on ... the rebels told me there have been heavy casualties and there are a number of corpses between here and the town [of Ajdabiya] that they have been unable to reach." He said the road between Benghazi and Ajdabiya was littered with the "burnout wreckage of what was Qadaffy's armour and tanks", destroyed in air raids by coalition forces. Shamsudin Abdulmola, from the opposition national council, told Al Jizz: "The Libyan free forces seem to be allowing the coalition to clear the road ahead of heavy artillery and military forces which were planning to attack civilian populated areas. "They're holding back until the roads are cleared out and then the advance of the volunteers takes place." Elsewhere, forces loyal to Qadaffy surrounded the town of Misrata killing at least nine people, cutting off its water and bringing in human shields, the Rooters news agency reported, citing residents. Coalition jets continued to patrol the UN-sanctioned no-fly zone over Libya, but launched no new attacks after air raids over the weekend scattered Qadaffy's forces. A cruise missile attack hit a three-story building in Qadaffy's Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli late on Sunday, the first reported attack on the Libyan leader's military control centre. Libyan authorities invited journalists to visit the site of the attack early on Monday morning. Mussa Ibrahim, a front man for Qadaffy, called the attack a "barbaric bombing" but said no one had been hurt. He declined to say whether Qadaffy himself was inside the compound, the same site that was bombed by the US in 1986. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 "He said the road between Benghazi and Ajdabiya was littered with the "burnout wreckage of what was Qadaffy's armour and tanks", destroyed in air raids by coalition forces." Do you get the impression about the Libyan rebels that they are about as organized as the girls down at the Ice Cream Parlor? What makes me think of a bunch of Arabs in T-shirts and Toyotas? Shooting in the air and playing CD's...that sort of thing. Fearsome as Mexicans on Pulque. Nobody in charge and dont bunch up. yeah? |
| Posted by: Dribble2716 2011-03-22 04:04 |