Libya rebels gain ground in east as council meets

Libyan rebels said they pushed their campaign closer to Tripoli yesterday by seizing an eastern town, as fierce fighting raged on in a key town west of the capital and casualties rose on both sides.

As the battle to unseat leader Muammar Gaddafi gathered pace, the recently formed national council – the opposition’s embryonic government – was set to hold its first formal meeting in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

A rebel officer who defected when the uprising began last month said “we pushed them past Bin Jawad and today we will pound them back to Sirte,” Gaddafi’s hometown, about 150 km to the west.

An AFP reporter saw groups of rebels in Bin Jawad, a small settlement of two restaurants, shacks and houses.

Asked when the rebels would advance further towards Sirte, a retired soldier turned rebel said it would depend on reinforcements and the weather. A dust storm had drastically reduced visibility in Ras Lanuf yesterday.

Among rebels, there were reports of negotiations for a peaceful entry into Sirte, although that would seem unlikely given its symbolism for Gaddafi.

Namil Mashash, a rebel leader in Ras Lanuf, told AFP “we can easily enter Sirte, but we want to avoid the loss of life. That is why we are negotiating to go to Sirte without fighting and then continue on to Tripoli.”

Defected soldier Ibrahim al-Atrashi said that, “in the past three days, 7,000 men have moved from Benghazi west towards the front.”

After heavy clashes last Friday, the rebels controlled Ras Lanuf, a pipeline hub on the Mediterranean coast that houses a major refinery and petrochemical complex.

Hospitals in rebel-held towns to the east said they had received up to 10 dead and more than 20 wounded from Friday’s fighting for the town. Atrashi said 16 rebels died. He also said 25 loyalists were killed, but that was impossible to confirm independently.

Meanwhile, the death toll from mysterious twin explosions at an arms dump in the rebel-held eastern city of Benghazi on Friday night rose to between 32 and 34, a doctor said yesterday.

“We’re having problems at arriving at an exact number of dead as several bodies were torn apart by the explosions,” said Hussem al-Mejri, at Benghazi’s Al-Jala Hospital.

Libyan planes were circling overhead in Bin Jawad and Ras Lanuf, about 40 km east.

One rebel said: “I want to give a message to America. See these planes? We want a no-fly zone,” something Western powers have so far been unwilling to impose.

At funerals for those killed in Ras Lanuf, another man said “there will be rivers of blood... How long will the West hold back and do nothing? People are asking why the West is watching without doing anything.”

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said yesterday his country was seeking a UN Security Council resolution to impose a no-fly zone.

“We are working in New York with the British to get a UN Security Council resolution creating an air exclusion zone to avoid bombings,” he said.

In Libya’s west, loyalists rained tank shells and machine gun fire on Zawiyah, 60 km (west of Tripoli, as they sought to retake the city from rebels, a Sky News correspondent there said.

Libya revolt timelime

March 5:

• Libyan rebels push their campaign closer to Tripoli by seizing the eastern town of Bin Jawad, as deadly fighting rages on in the key city of Zawiyah where tanks fire on houses, witnesses say.

• The death toll from mysterious twin explosions at an arms dump in the rebel-held eastern city of Benghazi on Friday night rises to between 32 and 34, a doctor says.

• French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe says his country is seeking a UN Security Council resolution to impose a no-fly zone.

• The national council declared by rebels in Benghazi is poised to hold its first session in secret for security reasons.

• More than 191,000 people have fled the violence in Libya, where opponents of Muammar Gaddafi are seeking to oust the veteran ruler, the UN says.

• Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s crumbling regime is still being boosted by millions of dollars of crude export revenues despite Western sanctions, the Financial Times reports.

March 4:

• Rebel fighters move westwards towards Tripoli, with “many dead and wounded” in clashes with pro-Gaddafi forces at an oil compound in Ras Lanuf.

• Libyan TV says government forces have retaken Zawiyah, west of Tripoli. Clashes continue in Misrata, a rebel-held pocket close to the capital.

• Anti-Gaddafi protesters clash with police in Tripoli.

• The UN’s refugee agency says heavily-armed pro-regime forces at the Libyan side of the border with Tunisia are restricting passage for thousands of people trying to flee.

March 3:

• Gaddafi’s warplanes hit the rebel-held oil port of Brega.

• The Dutch defence ministry says three of its marines helping to evacuate civilians have been captured by Libyan soldiers.

• The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor says Gaddafi and his associates will be probed over allegations of crimes against humanity.

• A Libyan official says the country’s oil output has fallen by half.

• An international airlift gets under way to take home thousands of people who have fled Libya into Tunisia.

March 2:

• Gaddafi loyalists launch a counter-offensive in the east.

• The Libyan Human Rights League says at least 6,000 people have been killed since the start of the revolt, half of them in Tripoli.

March 1:

• The opposition controls eastern Libya and numerous towns in the west, while Tripoli and its environs remain under Gaddafi’s control.

• Anti-regime leaders in Benghazi say they have set up a military council.

February 28:

• The EU follows the UN and the US in imposing sanctions on Gaddafi and 25 others.

• Gaddafi tells foreign media “all my people love me”.

February 27:

• The UN refugee agency says a “humanitarian emergency” is under way as thousands of migrant workers, mostly from Egypt and Tunisia, seek to flee Libya.

February 25:

• Nato and the EU join forces to rescue stranded foreigners.

• Gaddafi says he will open arsenals to arm his supporters.

February 22:

• Gaddafi goes on TV and orders his forces to crush the uprising.

February 21:

• Libyan diplomats around the world begin to desert the regime.

February 20:

• Protesters ransack state television headquarters in Tripoli.

February 17:

• Calls go out on Facebook for a ‘Day of Rage’ against the regime.

February 15-16:

• Protests start in Libya’s second city Benghazi.