Libyan forces step up counter-attacks

Saturday, gaining ground on the battlefield and lifting optimism among government supporters here in the North African country’s capital.
In only three days, Libyan government forces have retaken the city of Zawiyah, west of Tripoli, as well as the cities of Ras Lanuf and Brega in the east.
Currently, they are marching towards Banghazi, the second largest city in the country.
On Monday, government forces attacked the city of Zwara near the border with Tunisia, one of the few strongholds held by rebels in the western part of the country.
Now they are only about one km from the city centre.
By contrast, rebel forces have retreated constantly and been forced into passive resistance out of concern the government forces may sever their retreat routes to Tunisia.
According to Libyan media on Monday, rebel forces gathered in the eastern city of Ajdabiya, which is considered the rebels’ first line of defence.
The government army reportedly recaptured the city of Brega near Ajdabiya and rebels had retreated to Ajdabiya, which is expected to be key to their ability to halt the government’s advance.
Government air forces conducted raids on Ajdabiya on Monday, killing at least one person and injuring 11, local reports said.
Meanwhile, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi used the state media under his control to back the battlefield success with a strong psychological offensive aimed at splitting the rebel camp and regaining confidence.
The government controlled state television station has repeatedly broadcast the scenes of celebrations in the cities retaken by the government army.
The government also dropped leaflets from aircraft into Ajdabiya, urging rebels to surrender.
Airstrikes and shelling pounded the Libyan rebel-held city of Ajdabiya yesterday, causing casualties as forces loyal to Gaddafi advanced against the outgunned insurgents.
Fighters returning from the front some six km to the west said they came under heavy bombardment from Gaddafi forces, and the sounds of rocket fire became louder in the town centre.
Ambulances and trucks bringing wounded to the main hospital became more frequent and more armed rebels were accompanying them.
Two dead people and three critically wounded were brought to the hospital, medical sources said, amid tense scenes as the doctors accused the rebels of abandoning their posts defending the city.
But the fighters insisted that they were simply outgunned by Gaddafi’s forces, and it was not clear whether they would make a stand as their commanders had insisted.
In the central square rebels manned anti-aircraft guns pointing down the boulevard along which Libyan troops were expected to appear, as a lone young man brandishing a pre-regime flag screamed defiance.
Libyan television claimed Ajdabiya had fallen to Gaddafi’s forces, but an AFP correspondent there said this was not the case.
“The city of Ajdabiya is totally controlled (by Gaddafi forces) and is being cleansed of armed gangs”, the television report said.
Loudhailers urged fighters to head for the front as another airstrike rocked the city, hitting a four-storey apartment block, damaging the ground floor and wounding six members of a family.
Ambulances continued to bring in the wounded, and a dozen arrived on the backs of trucks. Most were said by medics to be victims of shelling.
Among the wounded was a little boy of about 10 wearing an orange jumper.
Earlier, Wajid al-Hasi (31) was killed when a jet dropped a bomb as he drove by the gateway to the city, sending shrapnel smashing into the back of his car and shattering his skull, witnesses and medics at the hospital said.
The front of the grey saloon was undamaged, but the rear and left side windows were smashed and pieces of the Hasi’s skull, brains and bloody scalp plastered the interior. One witness appeared to be in shock.
An angry crowd gathered as doctors at the hospital collected the shreds of tissue into plastic bags from the car that fellow fighters had driven to the hospital with Hasi’s body on the back seat.
Shortly afterwards, another ambulance arrived with a young man suffering serious head injuries.
“We want a no-fly zone and surgical strikes. No-one in Libya would object to that. We want NATO to take out Gaddafi’s bases”, said doctor Suleiman al-Obeidi who came from a hospital in the northern town of Al-Bayda to help out.
“We are civilians. What can we do against heavy weapons? Against tanks, Grad rockets and warships?” the 43-year-old demanded.
“Give us tanks, give us planes and we will do it ourselves, we will defeat his machine.
“Unless NATO does this he will slaughter us all.”
United Nations and G8 members are discussing options for military intervention to aid the month-old rebellion against Gaddafi’s 42-year reign, but many are wary about being drawn into a North African civil war.
General Abdel Fatah Yunis, who resigned as interior minister to join the revolution and now leads its military forces, said on Sunday that his troops would defend Ajdabiya at all costs.
“Ajdabiya is a vital city because it’s a key city. It is a route to the east and Benghazi, and also another route to Tobruk as well as to the south”, he said. -Xinhua, AFP.