| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Dupe URL: Pro-Gaddafi forces retake Bin Jawad, rebels retreat |
| 2011-03-29 |
| Troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, have shelled pro-democracy forces heading west on the main coastal highway, pushing them out of Bin Jawad, a small town around 150km east of Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown. Pro-Gaddafi forces were mostly using mortars and artillery, as opposed to the tanks and airstrikes of early advances. "The Gaddafi guys hit us with Grads [rockets] and they came round our flanks," Ashraf Mohammed, a 28-year-old fighter wearing a bandolier of bullets, told a reporter from the 'Rooters' news agency at the front. Also on Tuesday, several explosions were heard in the capital, Tripoli, but it was unclear as to where exactly they occured. The Pentagon said that international forces had launched 22 Tomahawk cruise missiles and flew 115 strike sorties over Libya in the last 24 hours. The reversal for Libya's nascent opposition came after their forces had made a speedy, two-day advance from Ajdabiya. Ajdabiya is a crossroads town that Gaddafi's troops had held for two weeks before an international military intervention allowed pro-democracy fighters to take it back. A spokesman in the eastern opposition stronghold of Benghazi had announced earlier that day that Sirte itself had fallen, a rumour that turned out to be untrue. The rebel retreat from Bin Jawad came as representatives from more than 40 countries gathered in London for a conference aimed at a post-Gaddafi political future for Libya. |
| Posted by:Pappy |