AJE: New Air Raids Hit Libyan Oil City (Includes Video Report From The Middle Of The Battlefield)

[Turborama]

Source: Al Jazeera English

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have launched new air raids on the oil city of Ras Lanuf and are closing in on the western town of Az Zawiyah.

Fresh reports of rockets landing on Ras Lanuf came on Wednesday, with Al Jazeera's correspondent there saying there was intense fighting taking place between rebels and the government's fighter jets.

"What we are hearing is intense and repeated attacks by Gaddafi's airplanes on the rebels," Jacky Rowland said.

"The air force is concentrating on the big junctions at the entrance to the town. The opposition fighters are extremely panicked."

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/201139138156335.html

---

More details and the video report at the link.

After watching this video and the http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x560932">Sky News report from Zawayah there is no doubt that a civil war is underway in Libya.

Update: Here's the same video report that's embedded in the AJE article...

Bombs fall on Libya's Ras Lanuf

Uploaded by http://www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEnglish">AlJazeeraEnglish on Mar 9, 2011

As battles rage across Libya, dozens of people have been killed after Colonel Gaddafi's forces launched a fresh wave of air strikes on rebel groups.

The repeated strikes came as Gaddafi began a major diplomatic effort which was seen by some as a sign that he may be prepared to end the war, sending diplomats to the Arab League, NATO and the European Union.

Al Jazeera English's Jacky Rowland was there as the bombs fell on Ras Lanuf in the east: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgzIkUC7ZG0

[defendandprotect]

1. KR

[pinboy3niner]

2. War photog: Ras Lanuf "thickest fighting in a single day" he ever experienced

March 9, 2011, 10:16 pm
In the Thick of Libya’s Brutal Fighting
By KERRI MACDONALD and DAVID FURST


When Tyler Hicks says that he has just witnessed what may have been the “thickest fighting in a single day” that he has ever experienced, with the “most firepower — coming and going,” he is describing extraordinary hostilities.

As a war photographer, Mr. Hicks has covered Kosovo, Chechnya, Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been in Libya for two weeks.

We spoke with him Wednesday after he had photographed the fighting around Ras Lanuf, a rebel stronghold that is now under attack by forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. We’ve edited and condensed our questions and his answers.


Interview with some of Hicks' Libya war photos:
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/in-the-thick-of-libyas-brutal-fighting/

In a telephone interview with Anderson Cooper on AC360 Wednesday night, Alex Crawford described regime forces gunning down unarmed civilian protesters in Zawiyah. She said, "Ninety-nine percent of the deaths are civilians...they're women...they're children...they're old people. They're not fighters...they don't even have anywhere to go to get away from the fighting...If that isn't a massacre, I really don't know what is."

[Turborama]

3. AJE: Battles rage over Libyan cities

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi pound Az-Zawiyah and Ras Lanuf as world debates imposition of a no-fly zone.
Last Modified: 10 Mar 2011 06:25 GMT

Pro- and anti-government forces are locked in intense fighting for control of several cities and towns across Libya, where a near month-long uprising is threatening to end Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's more than 41-year-old rule.

Some of the fiercest fighting is taking place in the strategic oil city of Az-Zawiyah, 50km west of the capital Tripoli.

"The revolutionaries control the centre of Zawiyah and Gadhafi's forces are surrounding it. It's 50-50," a resident who fled the city said.

"There was no one in the streets, the town is completely deserted, and there are snipers on the roofs," he said, adding that he did not know which side they were on.

Full article: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/201131041228856242.html

[pinboy3niner]

4. Juan Cole: Qaddafi’s Scorched Earth Policy, at Home and Abroad

Qaddafi’s Scorched Earth Policy, at Home and Abroad

Posted on 03/09/2011 by Juan

Muammar Qaddafi is still trying to play the al-Qaeda card, arguing that his murderous regime is what stands between Europe and the emigration to it of thousands of Muslim extremists. He told Turkish television that his regime is a key element of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, and its fall would bring chaos there, including to Israel.

...


Interestingly, Qaddafi’s language seems calculated to appeal to the far right in Europe and Israel, which views all Muslims as potential terrorists. It is an attempt to build a Qaddafi-National Front-Likud-Peter King front against the democracy movement in the Middle East. Qaddafi also sent an envoy Wednesday to the military council that is running Egypt. Since the pro-rebel tribe Awlad Ali dominates Salloum, the Egyptian city on the Libyan border, the rebels presumably are getting some supplies from their Egyptian allies. Qaddafi is probably keen to cut them off. His fear-mongering about al-Qaeda might have some purchase with right wing officers such as Omar Suleiman.

Aljazeera Arabic points out that the rebel forces, far from being “al-Qaeda,” are mostly disgruntled youth from major Libyan tribes such as Zintan. The keywords preferred by statements from such tribes are secular ones– the nation, the people, the army. Muslim fundamentalists speak of the “umma” or the ‘community of believers’ when they talk about the nation, whereas those imbued with civil discourse use terms like the ‘watan’ (originally a translation of the French ‘patrie’ or fatherland), and speak of ‘the people’ (sha’b) rather than ‘the believers.’ It is this civil language that the rebels speak, in all the communiques I’ve seen.

Pro-Qaddafi forces are being accused by residents of Zawiya, an important oil town to the west of Tripoli, of pursuing a scorched earth policy in the city, according to the BBC. Some 50 tanks and 150 armored vehicles are said to be indiscriminately wreaking havoc on the infrastructure.


More:
http://www.juancole.com/

[pinboy3niner]

5. Fresh airstrikes now hitting Ras Lanuf

Posted less than an hour ago on AJE Libya Live Blog - March 10:

11:04am < (4:04 AM EST) >

Gaddafi's forces have launched a fresh bombardment on the eastern Libyan oil town of Ras Lanuf on Thursday, a day after warplanes were reported to have struck another oil port, rebels and witnesses
said.

Bombs or missiles were landing a few km (miles) from Ras Lanuf oil refinery and close to a building of the Libyan Emirates Oil Referiny Company (LERCO) building, a Reuters witness said.

"One bomb landed on a civilian house in Ras Lanuf," rebel fighter Izeddine Sheikhy told Reuters.

He said the bombardment seemed to have come from the direction of the sea. This could not be confirmed.

A warplane was circling over Ras Lanuf, the Reuters witness said.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/africa/libya-live-blog-march-10-0

[Turborama]

6. Reports on AJE that dozens have been killed over the past few hours.

Thanks for the additional articles, man.

[Turborama]

7. Rebel forces retreat from Ras Lanuf

Rebel fighters fall back from oil town under rocket fire and aerial assault as Gaddafi loyalists launch major offensive.
Last Modified: 10 Mar 2011 20:26 GMT



Opposition fighters have been forced to withdraw from the central port city of Ras Lanuf as forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi launched a major offensive against rebels fighting to end the Libyan leader's decades-long rule.

Pro- and anti-government forces are locked in intense fighting for control of several other cities and towns along the coastline to the east of Tripoli, including Brega and Bin Jawad, as well as in Az Zawiyah to the west of the capital.

Rebel forces in the port city of Ras Lanuf, which is the site of a key oil installation, are now retreating from their positions and heading further east.

Opposition fighters were seen trooping into cars and trucks by the hundreds and fleeing eastwards, after coming under intense mortar and rocket fire, as well as aerial bombardment earlier in the day.

Full story: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/201131041228856242.html

[hankthecrank]

8. what they need is couple misplaced crates of anti air missile

fly along damn how did that crate fall out