Gaddafi showers oil port with rockets

GOVERNMENT forces drove hundreds of rebels from a strategic oil port with a withering rain of rockets and tank shells, significantly expanding Gaddafi’s control of Libya.

Rebels saw no concrete sign of Western moves toward military assistance such as the no-fly zone that they pleaded for as they retreated through the pancake-flat desert outside the port of Ras Lanouf, scanning the skies for government warplanes.

The fleeing rebels said government forces showered rockets and tank shells on Ras Lanouf in preparation for a full-scale advance. Lightly armed opposition members sped back to their territory by the hundreds, fleeing eastward in cars and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.

A rebel official in the town of Ajdabiya inside opposition territory said Gaddafi’s troops and tanks were battling the insurgents at the western entrance to Ras Lanouf and using gunboats to fire on the rebels from the sea.

“These are tough battles,” said Akram al-Zwei, a member of the post-uprising town committee. “We are fighting against four battalions heavily equipped with airpower, tanks, missiles, everything.”

He added that the rebels are fighting alongside the Saaiqa 36 Battalion, which had been based in Benghazi but defected to the opposition.

Taking back Ras Lanouf would be a major victory for Gaddafi, reestablishing his power over a badly damaged but vital oil facility and pushing his zone of control further along the main coastal highway running from rebel territory to the capital, Tripoli.

A rebel governing council spokesman said Gaddafi’s air force, army and navy had bombarded Ras Lanouf, targeting the main hospital, mosques and civilian areas.

“The regime that has lost legitimacy is practicing a scorched earth policy,” spokesman Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga said. “We have requested for all steps to be taken to protect the Libyan people. We believe the UN can do that.”

The rebel hospital in the eastern town of Brega said four were confirmed dead in the fighting, 35 were wounded and 65 were missing.

The international Red Cross said dozens of civilians have been wounded or killed in recent days in gruelling battles between Gaddafi’s army and the opposition.

“We need help from the international community, but we just hear promises,” said Mohammed Ali Al Zuaiee, a 48-year-old rebel fighter. “They are doing nothing.”

The main hospital in Ras Lanouf was hit by artillery or an airstrike and the rebels are pulling their staff out and evacuating patients to the towns of Brega and Ajdabiya, said Gebril Hewada, a doctor on the opposition’s health committee in the main eastern city of Benghazi.

In the west, Gaddafi claimed victory in recapturing Zawiya, the city closest to the capital that had fallen into opposition hands.

Picture: A Libyan volunteer carries ammunition on the outskirts of the eastern town of Ras Lanouf yesterday (AP).