Libyan rebels have gathered on a ridge overlooking a strategic town only 50 miles from Tripoli, preparing for a battle that could allow them to march directly to the seat of Muammar Gaddafi's power.
Libyan rebels look towards the front line near Bir Al-Ghanam in Western Libya Photo: AFP
7:48AM BST 01 Jul 2011
The Telegraph
About 50 rebel fighters spent Thursday at an observation post 1.3 miles outside the Libyan town of Bir al-Ghanam, using binoculars to try to assess the position of Gaddafi's forces.
They reached the area on Sunday after fighting in the Western Mountains southwest of Tripoli, an area where France said this week it had airdropped arms, provoking a diplomatic storm among world powers.
A French military spokesman confirmed a report in Le Figaro that rocket launchers and assault rifles were among arms parachuted in, prompting an angry reaction from Russia, one of many countries who have kept doors open to Gaddafi.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said supplying arms was a "crude violation" of UN Security Council Resolution 1970, which imposed a comprehensive arms embargo in February.
Gaddafi's forces in Bir al-Ghanam know the rebels are watching them from the ridge. At one point on Thursday they fired mortars and artillery, sending people running for cover.
Related Articles
Libya: France supplying weapons to rebels - 29 Jun 2011
Libya: Germany replenishes Nato's arsenal of bombs and missiles - 28 Jun 2011
The town is just an hour's drive from Aziziyah on Tripoli's southern outskirts, and a similar distance from Zawiyah, which controls the coastal highway that links Tripoli to the Tunisian border and the outside world.
The rebels encouraged more arms deliveries.
"Giving (us) weapons we will be able to decide the battle more quickly, so that we can shed as little blood as possible," senior rebel figure Mahmoud Jibril said in Vienna.
The rebels advance in the west contrasts with little progress east of Tripoli, increasing frustration among Nato allies over a costly three-month-old air campaign to back the rebels.
France, Britain and the United States say the air campaign will not end until Gaddafi falls. The war has become the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings sweeping North Africa and the Middle East.
Paris said it has not violated the UN embargo because the weapons it gave the rebels were needed to protect civilians from an imminent attack, which a later resolution seems to endorse.
Washington also said that it "would respectfully disagree with the Russian assessment."
No comments:
Post a Comment