Rebels 'push back Gaddafi troops'

Libyan rebels pressing to break a two-month siege in Misrata said they had captured the local airport and pushed Muammar Gaddafi’s forces ever further from the port city’s western outskirts.

The reported advances were the latest in a recent flurry of accounts of rebel victories, coinciding with intensified Nato air strikes on Gaddafi’s forces in several areas of Libya.

Nato said yesterday that the alliance had carried out more than 2,400 air strikes since March 31 as part of the effort to assist the rebels and pressure Gaddafi to end his 42-year authoritarian rule.

Last night Gaddafi made his first TV appearance since a Nato strike on his residential compound killed one of his sons on April 30.

Libyan TV showed him meeting tribal leaders, but did not record him speaking. To authenticate the scene, the camera zoomed in on the date on a TV monitor in the room, which read Wednesday, May 11. It was apparently recorded at the hotel where foreign correspondents stay, but he did not make himself available to them.

Because Gaddafi had not made an appearance, rumours began circulating that he had been hit in the April 30 air strike. The brief TV appearance seemed designed to squelch that speculation.

The last time Gaddafi was seen in public was April 9, when he visited a school in Tripoli.

According to the Libyan state news agency JANA, one of latest sites hit by Nato was the North Korean embassy in the capital Tripoli. JANA said the mission was badly damaged by fragments of a Nato missile fired on Monday.

Even though some of the recent reports of ground combat are difficult to confirm, they seem to represent a major boost for the rebels’ military prospects after weeks of stalemate on several fronts.

According to a rebel who identified himself as Abdel Salam, rebels were in total control of the airport in Misrata’s southern outskirts after two days of fighting. He said five rebels were killed and 105 injured.

He said rebels were also pushing west from Misrata towards the nearby city of Zlitan, hoping to then advance farther towards Tripoli.

“This is a major victory,” Abdel Salam said. “The Gaddafi forces have been suffering lack of supplies ... Their morale was very low after being defeated several times and pushed back.”

The rebels control most of eastern Libya, but Misrata – about 125 miles south east of Tripoli – is the only rebel stronghold in the west. Local doctors say more than 1,000 of its residents have been killed in the fighting and shelling during the siege by Gaddafi’s forces.

In Tripoli, a government spokesman denied the Misrata rebels’ claims of success.

“This is nonsense,” said Moussa Ibrahim. “We control the airport and we also control the sea port.”

Access to the port has been limited but not halted. The International Committee of the Red Cross has a chartered ship floating in the harbor which delivered medical supplies and baby food on Tuesday and is now being used to support ICRC work in the city.

Ibrahim did acknowledge that the war was creating severe shortages of many commodities in Tripoli.

“The Nato airstrikes and the sea embargo ... are badly influencing the lives of daily Libyans,” he said. “We have some shortages in fuel, food and medicine. It makes it difficult to go to schools, hospitals and factories.”

There was evidence of Tripoli’s economic plight at its colourful Abu Salim market – the largest in the capital. While residents strolled through the displays of bejewelled robes and glittery shoes, traders said the number of customers had fallen drastically since the conflict began in mid-February.

“In normal times, you wouldn’t have space to move,” said one trader.

The trader said fuel shortages, a slowdown of goods arriving by sea, and the dwindling value of the Libyan dinar had pushed up prices for many goods – more than doubling in some cases.

In Benghazi, the rebels’ headquarters city in eastern Libya, the opposition National Transitional Council received its highest-ranking foreign visitor yesterday – Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski.

He said the people of Poland and the European Union “wish victory to the Libyan people in making this transition to democracy”.

Mr Sikorski recalled that Poles rid themselves of communist rule two decades ago.

“If we could have done it ... so can you,” he said.

In Geneva, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon called for “an immediate, verifiable ceasefire” in Libya, and said Gaddafi’s government had agreed to another visit by a special envoy.

Mr Ban said he spoke to Libya’s prime minister by phone on Tuesday to urge a ceasefire and demand unimpeded access for UN humanitarian workers. He also called on Gaddafi’s forces to stop attacking civilians.

He said the prime minister, Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, agreed to receive a special UN envoy who would now travel to Tripoli to undertake “negotiations for a peaceful resolution of the conflict and unimpeded access for humanitarian workers”.

Meanwhile a series of Nato strikes targeted Tripoli early today.

Four explosions in quick succession were heard, preceded by the sound of loud whooshing – normally associated with cruise missiles.

After the strikes, the sound of speeding ambulances was heard by reporters staying in a Tripoli hotel.

It was not immediately clear what was hit. Reporters are not allowed to leave their hotels without government minders.

Nato strikes earlier this week hit an intelligence building and another structure used by parliamentarians.