|
Gaddafi forces pound Libyan towns
[Al Jazeera]  Muammar Qadaffy's forces have pounded Berber towns in Libya's western mountains with artillery, rebels and refugees said.Al Jizz's Anita McNaught, reporting from the Nafusa mountain range, said the rebels claimed to have gained ground in their fight against Qadaffy's army after NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... "A battle raged all day [on Monday]. There are deaths on both sides but Qadaffy's forces retreated," our correspondent said from the remote region that is largely inaccessible to journalists. "Our town is under constant bombardment by Qadaffy's troops. They are using all means. Everyone is fleeing," Imad, a refugee, said while bringing his family out of the mountains and into Tunisia. Three rebel fighters were killed in the bombardment of Nalut, a town close to the borders with Tunisia. Unconfirmed reports said Qadaffy troops were amassed near the town in preparation of an attack. Misrata also won no respite from two months of bitter siege as Qadaffy's forces bombarded the city after pulling out of the city centre. NATO, on its part, flattened a building inside Qadaffy's Tripoli compound, in what Libyan officials said was a failed attempt on their leader's life. NATO said its attack on the building in the Qadaffy compound was on a communications headquarters used to co-ordinate attacks on civilians. A Libyan front man said Qadaffy was unharmed, and state television showed pictures of him meeting people in a tent, which it said had been taken on Monday. Qadaffy's son Saif al-Islam said the Libyan government would not be cowed. "The bombing which targeted Muammar Qadaffy's office today ... will only scare children. It's impossible that it will make us afraid or give up or raise the white flag," he was quoted as saying by the state news agency, Jana. Libyan television, without giving details, said late on Monday that the "crusader aggressors" bombed civilian and military sites in Bir al Ghanam, 100km south of Tripoli, and the Ayn Zara area of the capital, causing casualties. A Rooters correspondent heard kabooms in Tripoli. Libyan television said foreign ships had also attacked and severed the al-Alyaf cable off Libya's coast, cutting communications to the towns of Sirte, Ras Lanuf and Brega. Posted by: Fred 2011-04-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=321274 |