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Libyan Rebels Gain Control of Oil Refinery as Qaddafi Forces Flee
Despite what rebel leaders described as fierce fighting, many of them expressed surprise that the Qaddafi loyalists were routed with relative ease. Some people even wondered whether the chaotic exit by the around 50 of the Qaddafi fighters — who fled by boat before they were bombed by NATO warplanes, according to several fighters — was some sort of a ruse. “We hope this is it,” said Ajali Deeb, a petrochemical engineer at the seized refinery. “I think he is weak. These are indications that the system has started to collapse.” The six-month history of the Libyan conflict is filled with similar predictions made by one side or the other, usually in the face of nettlesome facts. Even so, the rebels have taken a substantial swath of territory in western Libya over the past few weeks, and Colonel Qaddafi’s forces have not mounted a forceful counter-attack. There were other signs of a conflict that had reached a critical moment, if not its final stage. For days, the vital highway from Tunisia to Tripoli has remained closed, controlled by the rebels in a harsh blow to the Qaddafi government, which relies on the road for supplies of food and fuel. Thousands of refugees are also fleeing daily from Tripoli, some to escape the city’s mounting hardships but others clearing expecting that they would be safer in rebel-held areas. On the road, they passed through checkpoints staffed by increasingly confident rebel fighters, many of them toting brand new machine guns supplied by one of several foreign allies now providing weapons to the rebel forces. Perhaps the clearest sign of collapsing morale by Qaddafi forces <a href="http://www.suprasforcheap.com/men-supra-skytop-fashion-shoes-orange-and-green-p-255.html"><strong>men supra skytop fashion shoes orange and green</strong></a> was found in dozens of miles of untouched farmland, between the town of Bir Ghanem, the site of a large battle several weeks ago, and Zawiya. Qaddafi forces retreated along the road between the towns last week, ceding 100 kilometers and hardly put up a fight, rebel fighters said. “It took one day. They were running,” said Mustafa Traiki, 30, who fought in Zawiya on Thursday. “I think they are getting weaker. Every day, we hear about someone coming from the Qaddafi side to our <a href="http://www.blackugg-boots.com/ugg-ultra-tall-boots-c-11.html"><strong>UGG Ultra Tall Boots</strong></a> side,” he said. Colonel Qaddafi has rejected calls to leave power, defying defections by subordinates, increased economic and political isolation and NATO air assaults. Nevertheless, his government was said to be involved in French-brokered negotiations with the rebels in the Tunisian city of Djerba earlier this week, Reuters said, citing a report in Le Parisien. The former French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, who said he was present at the meetings, called the talks “extremely difficult.” As their foreign allies searched for a way to end the fighting, the Libyan rebels tried to seize more territory and perhaps gain leverage in their negotiations. Their successes have at least temporarily shifted attention away from the rebel’s internal divisions, laid bare by the assassination of their top military commander on July 28. There also remained the possibility that the rebels, as they have in the past, would advance beyond their ability to hold their ground. And the Qaddafi forces, despite signs of weakness, have not stopped resisting. Even as the rebels have extended partial or total control over key coastal towns, including Sabratha and Sarman, west of Zawiya, there have been reports of Qaddafi loyalists shedding their uniforms and continuing the fight inside those towns. Repeated claims that rebels control the city of Gheryan, which straddles another crucial supply line to Tripoli, have been hard to verify: several roads to the city are still controlled by Qaddafi loyalists, the rebels concede. A few miles from the port at the oil refinery, where fleeing Qaddafi soldiers left their green fatigues on a dock, snipers shot at rebel fighters in the center of Zawiya, which is still held by government loyalists. The six-day struggle for Zawiyah, the last major city on the western approach to Tripoli that Qaddafi forces had managed to hold, has now settled into fierce fighting on two fronts, rebel fighters said. There have been ongoing clashes around Zawiyah’s eastern entrance, and in the center of town Qaddafi soldiers have take up positions in a traffic circle and in several buildings, including a bank, a hospital and a hotel that was under construction. On Thursday, the hotel caught fire, sending a column of black smoke above the city. The Qaddafi soldiers still committed to <a href="http://www.cheapsuprashoesonline.com/supra-fashion-shoes-whole-black-p-196.html"><strong>supra fashion shoes whole black</strong></a> the fight appeared less capable than the troops that had repeatedly driven back the rebels in the early months of the war. The mortar attacks this week — regular, and still deadly — lacked the precision of the strikes that used to send rebel soldiers fleeing en masse from towns like Brega and Ras Lanuf in the eastern part of the country. As the smoke from the hotel provided cover for the rebels, they gathered their dead, including two men whose bodies had been sitting in the road for days. Eissa Korghly, an engineer turned fighter, used his pickup truck to take the bloated bodies wrapped in floral blankets to a graveyard, where several men helped bury them. A few kilometers Qaddafi soldiers still had positions, a grave-digger said. Mr. Korghly picked up his shotgun, and turned his truck around, headed back to Zawiyah. “We are pushing,” he said. ““Maybe its hours. Not days.”
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