By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:24 PM on 27th March 2011
* Western forces bomb 'civilian and military areas' in Tripoli, says Libyan TV
* Heavily-armed convoy seen fleeing Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte for Tripoli
* NATO agrees to take full command of military operations in Libya
* Opposition leaders poised to take control of oil terminals
* Gaddafi forces hit back, pounding Misrata with mortars, killing eight
* We will not arm rebels, says Defence Secretary Liam Fox
At least four explosions and heavy anti-aircraft gunfire reverberated through Tripoli tonight in a sign that coalition forces have turned their sights on the Libyan capital.
As night fell, Libyan state TV claimed in a news flash that both 'civilian and military areas' in Tripoli had been hit by the 'crusader, colonialist aggressors'.
Meanwhile Libyan rebels are advancing on Colonel Gaddafi's forces in his Eastern birthplace of Sirte amid signs that Western air strikes may be beginning to help turn the tide of the conflict. It was reported that government military vehicles were fleeing the city 300 miles from Tripoli as the pro-democracy army threatened to bear down
Witnesses reported explosions in Sirte as a convoy of 20 military vehicles including truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns was seen leaving the city and moving westwards towards the capital.
Out of action: A Gaddafi tank burns near Ajdabiya
It was also revealed tonight that NATO have agreed to assume full command of military operations in Libya, ending nearly a week of heated negotiations over the chain of command.
The decision, which could take up to 72 hours to implement, puts the 28-member military alliance in charge of operations to target Muammar Gaddafi's military infrastructure and protect civilians, as well as implementing a no-fly zone and an arms embargo.
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* Assad blames 'armed gangs' for violence rocking Syria as government announces 12 deaths in weekend of unrest
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: 'Our goal is to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat from the Gaddafi regime. NATO will implement all aspects of the U.N. resolution. Nothing more, nothing less.'
The operations will be led by Canadian General Charles Bouchard, NATO said.
On the march: Rebels are seen inside an oil terminal compound after it was retaken by rebels from Muammar Gaddafi's forces in Zueitina, 528 miles east of Tripoli
On the march: Rebels are seen inside an oil terminal compound after it was retaken by rebels from Muammar Gaddafi's forces in Zueitina, 528 miles east of Tripoli
Advancing: Libyan rebels celebrate on a destroyed tank as they enter the strategic oil town of Ajdabiya after defensive positions previously held by loyalists stood deserted following Western-led air strikes
Advancing: Libyan rebels celebrate on a destroyed tank as they enter the strategic oil town of Ajdabiya after defensive positions previously held by loyalists stood deserted following Western-led air strikes
Rebels celebrate after forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi fled following coalition air strikes around the eastern town of Ajdabiyah,
Libyan rebels walk past a corpse of an alleged pro-Gaddafi forces
Celebrations: rebels celebrate in Ajdabiya, left and a rebel walks past the corpse of a soldier from Gaddafi's forces
Earlier this evening in Sirte, where Gaddafi was born, dozens of civilian cars carrying families and loaded with people's belongings were also seen driving westwards along the coastal road from the city towards the Libyan capital.
But Gaddafi's forces tonight hit back by firing volleys of mortar rockets into the city of Misrata, killing eight people and wounding 24, as they attempt to counter attack from the west, it has emerged.
Libyan rebels have already seized power of Brega, Uqayla, Bin Jawad and the important oil town of Ras Lanuf, after moving westwards, emboldened by their recapture of the strategic Ajdabiya yesterday.
The capture of Ras Lanuf was the high-water mark of their military campaign earlier this month before Gaddafi pushed them back and it is thought the front line is now west of the oil-exporting settlement.
On the eastern approach of Ras Lanouf, airstrikes apparently hit three empty tank transporters and left two buildings that appeared to be sleeping quarters pockmarked with shrapnel.
'There was no resistance. Gadhafi's forces just melted away,' said Suleiman Ibrahim, a 31-year-old volunteer, sitting in the back of a pickup truck on the road between the two towns. 'This couldn't have happened without NATO. They gave us big support.'
Decimated: A Libyan rebel stands near a wrecked Gaddafi tank near the East gate of Ajdabiya
Decimated: A Libyan rebel stands near a wrecked Gaddafi tank near the East gate of Ajdabiya
Some rebels suggested that Gaddafi is withdrawing what forces he has left from the east of the country so that he can keep control of the west as air strikes by Britain, France and the UK continue after the UN approved a no-fly zone to protect civilians.
However, there were reports of heavy shelling from government forces on the rebel-held outpost Misratah.
Rebel fighter Walid al-Arabi said 'There is no Gaddafi army in Ras Lanuf,' quoting troops who had returned from the town.
Despite the rebels’ progress over the weekend, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates yesterday suggested it might not continue at the same pace – warning Britain that it was set to be embroiled in a costly war which would last many months.
Mr Gates admitted that ‘nobody knew’ if the military mission in Libya would be completed before the end of the year, and confirmed the White House will ‘diminish’ the military resources committed to the conflict within days – raising concerns that the UK’s stretched Armed Forces will have to make up the shortfall.
Topping up: A French Rafale jet takes in fuel in mid-flight while enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya
Topping up: A French Rafale jet takes in fuel in mid-flight while enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya
His comments will fuel mounting fears that David Cameron has involved Britain in a lengthy and expensive military operation without clear goals or a deadline.
RAF Tornado jets carried out a second wave of attacks using precision-guided Brimstone missiles to destroy tanks on the edge of Ajdabiya which allowed the rebels to seize the city.
Advancing unchallenged, the rebels last night controlled virtually all the sea ports essential to Libya’s oil trade.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox said that taking control of Ras Lanuf would put the country's oil exporting capacity in rebel hands.
'What you are seeing on the ground now is the rebels moving west out of Ajdabiya now to Brega, moving back round the coast. That, of course produces a very different political dynamic,' Dr Fox told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.
'As they move round the coast, of course, the rebels will increasingly control the exit points of Libya's oil and if they continue to move round that coast from Brega round to Ras Lanuf on the coast, it means they will pretty much be in control of all Libya's oil exports.
Touchdown: A Rafale fighter jet returns from a mission on the flight deck of France's flagship Charles de Gaulle today
Touchdown: A Rafale fighter jet returns from a mission on the flight deck of France's flagship Charles de Gaulle today
'That will produce a very dynamic and a very different equilibrium inside Libya. How that will play out in terms of public opinion and the Gaddafi regime remains to be seen.'
But he also ruled out supplying arms to the rebels, who cannot match the superior firepower of Col Gaddafi's forces, as it would fall foul of the UN arms embargo on Libya. 'We are not arming the rebels, we are not planning to arm the rebels,' he said.
In the west of Libya, where rebel forces are pinned down near the town of Misrata, French warplanes last night destroyed five Libyan aircraft and two helicopters on the ground at an air base.
Pro-Gaddafi forces had earlier pounded the city with tank, mortar and artillery fire that halted only as coalition aircraft appeared overhead, rebels said.
Ministers will be hoping that the signs mean the Western air strikes, which have included missions by RAF Tornadoes, are shifting the balance of power in Libya in favour of the rebels.
Brimstone missiles from Tornado GR4s destroyed six tanks at Ajdabiya – four on Thursday and two on Friday – and three more in a separate attack on the city of Misrata far to the west.
Map of Libya showing state of control by town. (SIN03)
The Gadhafi regime on Saturday acknowledged the airstrikes had forced its troops to retreat and accused international forces of choosing sides.
'This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,' Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in the capital, Tripoli.
'They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.'
Gaddafi remained elusive at the weekend, with a government spokesman suggesting he is moving around Libya to keep his location secret.
Muss Ibrahim said: 'He is leading the battle. He is leading the nation forward from anywhere in the country.
'He has many offices, many places around Libya. I assure you he is leading the nation at this very moment and he is in continuous communication with everyone around the country.'
One resident in Misrata said 115 people had been killed in the city in a week and that snipers were still shooting people from rooftops.
In Ajdabiyah, rebel fighters danced on tanks, waved flags and fired in the air near buildings riddled with bullet holes. Half a dozen wrecked tanks lay near the eastern entrance to the town and the ground was strewn with empty shell casings.
Rebels said fighting had lasted through Friday night into Saturday. By the town's western gate there were bodies of more than a dozen of Gaddafi's fighters. An abandoned truckload of ammunition suggested his forces had beaten a hasty retreat.
Victorious: A Libyan rebel holds a rocket at the east gate of Ajdabiya
'Thank you Britain, thank you France, thank you America," said one rebel, praising the Western air strikes against Gaddafi's forces.
Capturing Ajdabiyah, a gateway from western Libya to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and the oil town of Tobruk, was a big morale boost for the rebels.
In Misrata, the only big insurgent stronghold left in Libya's west, cut off from the main rebel force to the east, shelling by Gaddafi's forces fell silent on Saturday when Western coalition planes appeared in the sky, rebels said.
Libya's third city is only about 200 km from the capital and Gaddafi can ill afford to leave it in the hands of anti-government protesters.
'He pulled his forces out of Ajdabiyah and Brega so that he puts all his weight in attacking Misrata and winning so he can control the whole west versus losing the whole east,' a rebel, called Saadoun, said by telephone.
libya
Welcome: A Libyan rebel greets a man on a checkpoint leading into Ras Lanouf, eastern Libya today
The UN Security Council authorized the operation to protect Libyan civilians after Gaddafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after 42 years in power.
The airstrikes have crippled Gaddafi's forces, allowing rebels to advance less than two weeks after they had seemed at the brink of defeat.
Dr Fox ruled out Britain supplying weapons, including machineguns and anti-tank rockets, to rebels to hasten Gaddafi’s defeat.
He said: ‘We are not arming the rebels. We are not planning to arm the rebels.’
Nato, which is in command of a no-fly zone above Libya, agreed last night to take control of all military operations, possibly as early as tomorrow.
This would coincide with Mr Cameron hosting the London Conference on Libya. Foreign ministers from more than 35 nations, plus UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and African Union chairman Jean Ping, will discuss the crisis.
The conference will reiterate calls for Gaddafi to introduce an immediate ceasefire and end violence against Libyan civilians, and aims to ‘support a new political future’ for Libya without Gaddafi.
However, Italy risked sparking outrage by suggesting Gaddafi should be given a safe haven.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini wants to put forward a joint plan with Germany involving a ceasefire, a humanitarian corridor and exile for the tyrant.
In his weekly address, Barack Obama said the coalition had averted a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’.
‘The lives of countless civilians – innocent men, women and children - have been saved,’ he said.
On their heels like a whippet snapping at a wounded bear
By RICHARD PENDLEBURY
In the end, we simply did not have the petrol to keep up.
Our fuel gave out somewhere near Agheila, with the rebel spearhead still several score miles further west.
By sundown the leading units were reported to have advanced beyond Bin Jawad and within striking distance of Muammar Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte.
War casualty: Rebel fighters cover the body of a Libyan found dead in a car on a site bombed by coalition air forces in the town of Ras Lanuf
War casualty: Rebel fighters cover the body of a Libyan found dead in a car on a site bombed by coalition air forces in the town of Ras Lanuf
Even by the standards of this seesaw conflict, the movement of the battlefront this weekend is a remarkable reversal of fortune.
Last week Gaddafi’s armoured forces were in the suburbs of Benghazi. Now the remnants appear to have fled some 250 miles. The rebels are on their heels like a whippet snapping at a badly – possibly fatally – wounded bear.
What a difference Nato airpower has made.
Friday afternoon had seen me standing a few miles east of Ajdabiya, with Gaddafi artillery fire falling a little too close for absolute peace of mind. But over the weekend, after days of attack by coalition air forces, Gaddafi positions in and around the town cracked and broke.
Two weeks ago, we had left Ajdabiya in a hurry as the town was enveloped by Gaddafi’s advance eastwards. A razor, a pair of jeans, a shirt, socks and towel were among my possessions left behind.
So this weekend, with a front-door key still in my pocket and an anxiety to know the fate of the faces and places I had come to know in Ajdabiya, we returned.
The road was busy with trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies, streaming towards the town.
We sped past the shell-battered water tower which on Friday we had been warned not to go beyond because regime artillery spotters were using it as an aiming point.
A roadside café, where we had paused to buy drinks on our way out ahead of the Gaddafi advance, was wrecked. Warehouse buildings behind it bore the impact scars from various calibre munitions. A mosque had several gaping holes in its front wall.
Re-taken: Rebels celebrate in the town of Ras Lanuf. They said they would push on soon towards Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold of Sirte
Re-taken: Rebels celebrate in the town of Ras Lanuf. They said they would push on soon towards Gaddafi's stronghold of Sirte
Our first stop was the hospital. At the gate, my hand was grasped by two men who repeated: ‘England, England, Cameron, Cameron, we love you.’ Most of the patients and staff had been evacuated during the fighting.
Corridors which had echoed with the clamour of staff and families when I was last there, were silent. The morgue was full, of course.
Musbah, a trainee doctor from Ajdabiya, told me that more than 80 civilians had been killed while the town was under siege. More than 200 had been wounded, he said.
‘Sometimes the electricity would go off in the middle of an operation because the generator had run out of fuel and the patient would die,’ he said.
‘Another patient died because we ran out of oxygen.’
Three Ukrainian nurses, trapped at the hospital during the battle for the town, begged to use our phone to tell their families they were alive.
An Egyptian gynaecologist asked the same favour. In the past week of siege, battle and deprivation, Dr Khaled Gamal had delivered ten babies, two by caesarean section.
We sat on the hospital lawn as he made his call to Cairo. ‘Yes, I am alive,’ he told his wife, as she wept down the line.
We drove on towards the oil town of Brega. A munitions convoy had been caught in the open; lorries were shattered and burned out, thousands of unfired machinegun rounds were scattered in the desert.
‘Zenger! Zenger!’ was the constant, jeering cry of the rebel fighters who moved among the wreckage of a tyrant’s power.
The word means alleyway or passage. It was used by Gaddafi in a televised rant about how carefully – alleyway by alleyway – he was going to scour Benghazi of its rebels.
Now it was thrown back in his face.
Yesterday we reached the battle-scarred outskirts of Brega. Last time I had been here – March 10 – I was bombed by a Gaddafi jet.
On we drove from Brega into the desert marshlands around Agheila.
Up ahead Ras Lanuf had been retaken, we were told – and Bin Jawad, where more than two weeks ago the rebels suffered their first defeat and from which they were pushed all the way back to Benghazi.
But our fuel was gone. We had not expected to get so far in one day. Who had?
And my flat in Ajdabiya? An inner front door, previously left open, had been locked by the last person to leave. The landlord had fled abroad, I was told.
My socks will have to be liberated some other day.
Meanwhile, the rebel advance continues westwards apace.
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