There was no independent corroboration of the rebel retreat — the latest in a string of setbacks this week. But a Reuters dispatch quoted one of its correspondents as saying he heard warplanes overhead three times on Wednesday, followed by a series of explosions. The report quoted a rebel fighter as saying coalition warplanes had bombed the pro-Qaddafi units.
The loyalist advance on Wednesday was the latest swing of a pendulum as rebels seeking Colonel Qaddafi’s ouster first pushed westward with what amounted to close air support from the NATO-led coalition to regain lost ground and to press forward toward the Libyan leader’s hometown of Surt — a symbolic and strategically important objective on the long, coastal highway leading to Tripoli.
But, on Tuesday, the rebels fell into a chaotic retreat from the town of Bin Jawwad after loyalist ambushes blunted their advance on Surt on Monday, forcing them back toward Ras Lanuf.
On Wednesday, loyalist forces sought to capitalize on their gains, pressing toward Ras Lanuf as warplanes, apparently from the allied coalition, flew overhead, The Associated Press reported. Reuters quoted rebel forces as saying they were pulling out of Ras Lanuf after they came under a barrage of rocket fire from Qaddafi loyalists.
Over the past 12 days, airstrikes enabled the rebels to push back from what Western leaders have called the brink of defeat as pro-Qaddafi forces closed on Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital. The allies launched the strikes after the United Nations Security Council authorized military intervention to protect civilians.
Military analysts said that even after days of airstrikes, loyalist forces have enough resources to defend his urban strongholds like the coastal city of Surt where the dense civilian population precludes air attacks.
But as they extend their lines east along the coast toward the rebel redoubts, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces risk opening themselves to renewed allied strikes from above. Indeed, these analysts said, Western planners may be hoping that loyalist forces will find themselves caught in a vice, with the Colonel Qaddafi pushing them forward and the airstrikes forcing them back until they abandon him.
A new element also entered the military campaign on Wednesday when a prominent human rights watchdog urged Colonel Qaddafi’s forces to abandon the use of landmines in the conflict.
In a statement from Benghazi on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch, based in New York, said Colonel Qaddafi’s forces have laid both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines.
“Libya should immediately stop using antipersonnel mines, which most of the world banned years ago,” said Peter Bouckaert, the emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “Qaddafi’s forces should ensure that mines of every type that already have been laid are cleared as soon as possible to avoid civilian casualties.”
The statement said two dozen antivehicle mines and three dozen antipersonnel mines had been found in the coastal town of Ajdabiyah, now in rebel hands, after government forces held it from March 17 until March 27. Authorities in Tripoli had no immediate comment on the statement.
الرئيسية 
موضوع: As Rebels Retreat, Allied Warplanes Are Heard Over Libya 
الأربعاء مارس 30, 2011 5:03 am
