Libyan rebels targeted in airstrikes despite no-fly zone, rebels say
Gallery: Are Libyan rebels up to the task?: Libya’s opposition fighters are determined, but they lack proper military training and don’t know how to fight a war.
AJDABIYA, Libya – Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi went back on the offensive on Thursday, as questions continued to mount about the credibility and effectiveness of NATO’s no-fly-zone and campaign of air strikes.
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A senior U.S. general described the situation as a stalemate, while Turkey said it was talking to both sides and working on a “roadmap” for a ceasefire. In the meantime, though, Gaddafi is still seeking what military advantage he can get and probing for gaps in NATO’s resolve.
At the organization’s headquarters in Brussels, NATO ambassadors held an unscheduled meeting Thursday to follow up on complaints from French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe that the Libya campaign risked getting bogged down unless the pace and efficiency of air support for rebel forces picked up.
The inability of either side to score a decisive victory has left the Obama administration and NATO in a quandary, facing decisions about whether to continue its current mission of trying to protect civilians, or to increase assistance to the opposition, aid that is currently limited to strikes from air and sea.
Attacks by Gaddafi’s forces began with strikes on desert oil installations that serve as the rebels’ economic lifeline, and they intensified on Thursday with the fresh artillery bombardment of rebel positions in the eastern port city of Ajdabiya, which sent many fighters fleeing.
The day also ignited new confusion and outrage among rebels in Ajdabiya after warplanes strafed rebel forces and killed at least five people, including two doctors. Rebels first accused NATO of targeting them but later said the attack probably came from Gaddafi’s forces. By Thursday night, it was still unclear who attacked the rebels from the sky.
Abdul Fatah Younes, the rebel commander, told reporters that if NATO had attacked their tanks it was a mistake and if Gaddafi’s airplanes had been allowed to strike them it was an “even bigger mistake.”
Either way, NATO’s credibility among rebel forces, already battered since the United States took a backseat role, appears to have suffered another blow. Rebels are now questioning NATO’s resolve to help them.
The government attacks on oil installations in the remote southern desert appeared intended to take advantage of the limits of NATO’s involvement. Even as the rebels made their first oil shipment, a series of attacks on oil installations shut down production at the country’s main oilfield of Sarir. An oil company official in rebel-held territory joined the calls on Thursday for better protection from NATO.
Rebel fighters in Ajdabiya have grown accustomed to the Western alliance controlling the skies, so they were taken off guard on Thursday when low-flying planes fired upon several tanks and a passenger bus loaded with fighters. Younes, the rebel commander, denounced what he called “a vicious attack,’’ and said that the precision of the strikes led him to believe that NATO was responsible.
Outraged rebel fighters called the attack a repeat of an incident last Friday in which NATO bombs mistakenly killed 13 rebels and injured seven others. That incident was triggered when the rebels fired their weapons into the air in celebration — an act that NATO forces mistook for hostile fire.
This time, Younes said the rebel army had informed NATO of its plan to move tanks and other forces into new postions outside Adjabiya. Their tanks and bus were parked, other fighters said, and were marked with the green, black and red rebel flag.
Rebel forces, meanwhile, came under fire from government loyalists at Ajdabiya’s western gate and rapidly retreated. Many fighters, and some of the few families who had not yet fled the town after weeks of fighting, drove north and east toward Benghazi, the rebel capital, their pickup trucks and cars filled with everything from mattresses to suitcases to automatic weapons.
The main hospital in Ajdabiya was evacuated, with its patients and staff also headed to Benghazi. But the Gaddafi forces appeared not to have entered the city proper, and at least some rebel fighters remained.
In Washington, Gen. Carter F. Ham, who commanded the coalition operation until it was taken over by NATO last week, responded affirmatively when asked during Congressional testimony on Thursday whether the conflict had reached a stalement. He said that “debate is occurring within the U.S. government” about how best to respond.
In response to a question from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Ham also said he agreed that a stalemate seemed “more likely” than it had been when the United States and its allies began their military strikes last month.
The NATO meeting in Brussels was convened in response to complaints from France, which, along with Britain, has carried out the largest number of sorties over Libya since U.S. forces turned over operational command on March 31.
NATO officials said bad weather had reduced visibility and not made it easy to supply the kind of sustained close air support demanded by rebel commanders. They also accused Gaddafi’s forces of dispersing troops, tanks and artillery among civilian populations in several cities.
The alliance said it was investigating the the initial rebel version of what happened near Ajdabiya, but it did not reveal whether coalition warplanes were in the area at the time. The alliance said fighting in the area had been “fierce” for several days, and the battlefield remains confused and disorganized.
“The situation is unclear and fluid, with mechanized weapons traveling in all directions,” said a statement from NATO facilities in Naples.
With a quick military solution looking less likely by the day, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said his country was holding talks with both sides in Libya, and working on a “roadmap” to achieve a real ceasefire.
In any prolonged stalemate, the rebels’ ability to shore up their region’s tattered economy with oil revenues will be critical. Rebels still have around 2 million barrels of crude oil in Tobruk that can be exported, but production at the Sarir and Misla fields halted after a series of attacks.
Two employees of the Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) are still missing after Gaddafi forces attacked the Misla field with rockets, setting fire to at least one oil tank, the company's information manager, Abdeljalil Mayuf, told Reuters on Thursday.
Gaddafi's government has routinely denied attacking any oil facilities and has instead blamed rebels or NATO for the attacks.
"If we get Gaddafi's forces out of these areas, we can try to reopen Sarir field, but it's not safe now," Mayuf said, appealing for air support from NATO.
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