THU 28 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Mar 24, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Gadhafi's forces carry out massacre in Misrata

Thursday, March 24, 2011


TRIPOLI: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s forces resumed their attack on the rebel-held town of Misrata Wednesday, moving back onto the offensive just hours after Western strikes silenced their guns.


While four nights of Western airstrikes hit Libyan air defenses and an armored column in the east, Gadhafi’s tanks had kept up their shelling of Misrata in the west, killing dozens of people this week. Residents said a “massacre” was taking place with doctors treating the wounded in hospital corridors. Government snipers killed 16 people Wednesday, rebels said.


After nightfall, a doctor in Misrata said government forces were closing in on the hospital and shelling the area.
Eight explosions were heard in the Tajoura neighborhood, east of Tripoli, Wednesday evening and smoke was seen rising into the night sky, local residents told Reuters.


Gadhafi’s compound in Ajdabiya was also subject to airstrikes, Al-Arabiya TV reported.
“We will not surrender,” Gadhafi told supporters forming a human shield to protect him late Tuesday.


There were no reports of civilian casualties caused by Western airstrikes, said Rear Adm. Gerard Hueber, a top U.S. military officer involved in enforcing the no-fly zone. But neither had Libyan forces pulled back from Misrata, he said.
Hueber said that international forces were attacking Libyan government troops that had been storming population centers.
“From Benghazi, which we now believe to be under opposition control, we have moved west to Ajdabiya,” Hueber told Pentagon reporters by phone from the U.S. command ship in the Mediterranean sea.


British Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell said Wednesday at a base in Italy that Western forces had destroyed Libya’s air force and were flying with impunity across its air space, attacking ground troops wherever they threatened civilians.


The allies had flown 175 sorties in the last 24 hours, with the U.S. flying 113 of those, Hueber said.
Western governments failed again Wednesday to agree who should lead military operations in Libya.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he cannot predict how long the no-fly zone operation will last but said the U.S. could turn over control of it as early as Saturday.


French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said NATO would take on a coordination role in the Libya intervention and a contact group would be formed, made up of representatives of coalition countries, African Union, Arab League and EU countries, which will be in charge of strategic planning.

The group is to meet in London next Tuesday, Britain said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday the U.S. also expects “more announcements” of Arab participation in the coming days.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday that Kuwait and Jordan will give “logistic contributions” to the international coalition action against the Libyan regime. “I hope further support will be forthcoming,” Cameron told lawmakers when asked about the level of Arab support.


Gadhafi forces resumed their bombardment of Zintan, another rebel-held town in west Libya, a resident said, and tanks were expected there.
“Gadhafi’s brigades started bombardment from the northern area half an hour ago. The town is completely surrounded. The situation is very bad,” the resident, Abdul-Rahman, told Reuters by telephone from the town late Wednesday.


“They are getting reinforcements. Troops backed with tanks and vehicles are coming. We appeal to the allied forces to come and protect civilians,” he said. Six people were killed in the bombardment, a rebel spokesman said.


In the east, rebels were clashing with the army inside Ajdabiya, 150 kilometers west of Benghazi, rebel fighters said Wednesday, and residents were fleeing.
Government tanks loyal to Gadhafi were positioned at the eastern and western entrances of Ajdabiya, Al-Arabiya reported.


A family leaving Ajdabiya said a fraction of the residents remained. “I saw bodies in the streets, and buried and washed some myself as they’re rotting in the morgue,” said one man, declining to be identified.


Missiles landed near rebel positions Wednesday and shelling in previous days killed a number of rebel fighters.
Meanwhile, the rebel political leadership named Mahmoud Jabril to head an interim government and pick ministers. Jabril, a reformer who was once involved in a project to establish a democratic state in Libya, is already the head of a crisis committee to cover military and foreign affairs. – Agencies



 
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