Pro-Gadhafi forces clash with Tunisian troops

بسم الله الر حمن الر حيم

Pro-Gadhafi forces clash with Tunisian military

Friday's clashes mark the first time that Libyan government ground forces have crossed the border and entered a Tunisian town.

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi crossed into neighboring Tunisia and fought a gun battle with Tunisian troops in a frontier town on Friday as Libya's conflict spilled beyond its borders.

Pro-Gadhafi forces fired shells into the town of Dehiba, damaging buildings and injuring at least one resident, and a group of them drove into the town in a truck in pursuit of anti-Gadhafi rebels

The Libyan government troops were chasing rebels from the restive Western Mountains region of Libya who fled into Tunisia in the past few days after Gadhafi forces overran the border post the rebels had earlier seized.

While the Libyan forces were battling in Dehiba, the rebels who are fighting to end more

than four decades of Gadhafi's rule announced they had seized back the border post.

Rebels seized the post a week ago, as it controls the only road link which their comrades in Libya's Western Mountains have with the outside world, making them rely otherwise on rough tracks for supplies of food, fuel and medicine.

After weeks of advances and retreats by rebel and government forces along the Mediterranean coast, fighting has settled into a pattern of clashes and skirmishes.

The fighting for the crossing between Dehiba in Tunisia and Wazin on the Libyan side was typical of the fluid and confused conflict, which broke out in mid-February.

Some of Gadhafi's soldiers were killed and wounded in the fighting in Dehiba. Two residents told Reuters that shells had fallen on the town from pro-Gadhafi positions across the border

in Libya.

"Rounds from the bombardment are falling on houses.... A Tunisian woman was injured," one of the residents, called Ali, told Reuters by telephone.

He said later the fighting and shelling had stopped. "The Tunisian army is combing the town. We have no idea about the fate of Gadhafi's forces there because the Tunisian army closed

the gates to the town and nobody is allowed to enter."

Sympathies

Tunisia toppled its own veteran leader, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, in a revolution earlier this year that triggered turmoil through the Middle East and many Tunisians are sympathetic to the rebels fighting Gadhafi's forces.

A Libyan rebel said anti-Gadhafi fighters had retaken control of the border crossing near Dehiba. The main crossing into Libya, two hours' drive to the north, remains firmly under Libyan government control.

"Right here at this point I'm looking at the new (rebel) flag flying up there at the border. The rebels have got control of it, the freedom fighters. We're just in the process of opening it up," rebel Akram el Muradi said by telephone.

Tunisia's government late on Thursday issued a statement condemning incursions by Libyan forces after shells fired by Gadhafi loyalists fell into the desert near the border.

Friday's clashes marked the first time that Libyan government ground forces had crossed the border and entered a Tunisian town.

Residents said that a crowd of local people gathered in Dehiba on Friday morning to try to prevent pro-Gadhafi forces from entering the town.

They said the Tunisian military fired in the air to disperse them, and urged the demonstrators to seek shelter from the shelling inside their homes.

Inside Libya, NATO air strikes hit Gadhafi loyalists attacking the rebel held town of Zintan, a rebel spokesman said from there.

In the rebels' stronghold, Benghazi, a doctor said shelling by Gadhafi's forces in the besieged city of Misrata killed 12 people on Thursday, including two women. He said the dead were

victims of rocket and mortar fire.

Oil traders in Asia said on Friday a tanker with the first major oil shipment from rebel-held east Libya is expected to arrive in China next week.

The Liberia-registered tanker Equator, reported to be carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude, left the rebel-held east Libyan port of Marsa el Hariga three weeks ago, carrying fuel exports

vital to financing the uprising against Gadhafi.

The buyer of the cargo was not clear as trading house Vitol, which is managing the shipment, has not commented on its Libyan transactions. Traders said that finding a buyer was not straightforward due to concerns over legal complications related to the ownership of oil and

international sanctions. sumber

Liga Arab terus diperkotak katikan olih Amerika dan sekutunya dalam menangani pergolakan negara Islam , dan pertempuran terbaru melibatkan tentera yang pro Muaammar Gadaffi dengan tentera Tunisia menunjukan jurang pertempuran telah memasuki semp[adan kedua dua buah negara . Fenomena pergolakan dalaman negara Islam telah mengheret pergolakan berterusan dan melibatkan antara negara Islam yang bersempadan . Walaupun banyak usaha untuk menghentikan pergolakan politik dalamam kedua dua negara itu yang masih belum dapat diselesaikan , pengelibatan Amerika dan sekutunya hanya melebarluaskan lagi pertumpahan darah di negara Islam .

Amerika dan sekutunya terus mengambil kesempatan untuk mengukuhkan dominasinya demi kepentingan dasar dan strategi ekonomi , politik dan ketenteraan . Pergolakan dalaman didua negara ini dibiarkan berterusan tanpa dokongan mengamankan secara sungguh sungguh olih Amerika dan sekutunya untuk menambahkan ruang cengkaman politik dan kedudukan strategi ketenteraan di benua Arab dan Afrika .

Situasi pergolakan yang berterusan ini hanya menambahkan jumlah kematian penduduk awam dikedua dua negara yang sedang bergolak dan peranaan PBB hanya tertumpu untuk memberikan bantuan kemanusiaan tanpa mengambil ketetapan untuk menghalang Amerika dan sekutunya terus campurtangan disegi ketenteraan dikedua dua negara Islam ini . Keujudan PBB sebenarnya tidak mampu mengekang kuasa kuasa besar untuk terus mencampuri urusan negara lain dan ini akan menyebabkan kestabilan politik dan kedaualatan negara negara Islam terus dijadikan medan perang dan pembunuhan .

Arab League

Libya

Tunisia

Revolutionaries and forces loyal to Muammer Gaddafi battles over control of a key border post, fighting on both sides of the Libya-Tunisia frontier

Libyan rebels have regained control of the Dehiba crossing point on the Libyan-Tunisian border from government forces, a rebel told Reuters on Friday.

Earlier Today, Libyan troops chased rebel fighters across the border with Tunisia and clashed with them, indiscriminately firing in the area before being captured by the Tunisian military, witnesses said.

Tunisia's government expressed "extreme indignation" and demanded Libya immediately halt violations of its territory. Three Tunisians were injured, said a Tunisian witness, Ismail al-Wafi.

The spillover of the Libyan conflict into Tunisia introduced a further complication into more than two months of fighting with shifting front lines.

The Dhuheiba border crossing between Libya and Tunisia has been a flashpoint in recent days. The crossing has been changing hands repeatedly between rebels and regime forces.

Al-Wafi said the rebels had recaptured the border crossing on Friday. The crossing has served as an important supply line for rebel strongholds in a Libyan mountain area near Tunisia, home to members of Libya's ethnic Berber minority.

Thousands of residents of the mountain areas had fled to Dhuheiba and other Tunisian border communities in recent weeks to escape the fighting.

On Friday, Gaddafi forces in more than a dozen SUVs and armed with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers drove into Dhuheiba town, firing indiscriminately, al-Wafi said. He said Gaddafi loyalists were captured by Tunisian troops.

He said the clashes erupted at about 10 a.m. Friday and lasted about 90 minutes and that Dhuheiba residents also took part.

There had also been reports of fighting between Libyan forces and rebel fighters in Dhuheiba on Thursday. The Tunisian government issued an angry statement.

"Given the gravity of what has happened ... the Tunisian authorities have informed the Libyans of their extreme indignation and demand measures to put an immediate stop to these violations," the Tunisian Foreign Ministry said. sumber

Libya: Regime forces batter Misrata hours after claiming siege on hold

Troops loyal to Gaddafi renew bombardment despite statement that tribal leaders would be given 48 hours to broker resolution

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi pounded Misrata on Sunday, hours after the Libyan government claimed its troops had pulled back from the besieged city to let tribal leaders try to negotiate a political resolution, or unleash a "bloody" assault.

Using multibarrelled rocket launchers and tanks positioned at the edge of Misrata, loyalist troops fired hundreds of missiles at the city. At least six people, most of them civilians, were pronounced dead at the main hospital by midday. Dozens of injured were treated. "There has been a lot of shelling," said Anas Rajab, a doctor. "It looks like today will be another crisis day."

As the attacks continued, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the Libyan rebel national council, said that Kuwait is to contribute 50m dinars (£110m) to the rebel council.

The renewed bombardment contradicted a claim by Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, that "armed forces have ceased operations". The move, he said, was to give a 48-hour window for tribal leaders from the region south of Misrata to negotiate with the rebels over access to the port. If no deal could be reached by Monday night, the deadline, the tribes would launch an assault to "liberate" the city, Kaim said.

Tribal leaders have not confirmed any intervention, and rebel leaders in Misrata are sceptical about the government's statements. But Kaim said early on Sunday that the tribes were "trying to get in contact with the rebels".

The government's assertion that tribal leaders are ready to intervene politically and militarily may be an attempt to pressure rebels after the killing and capture of government troops, and to deflect attention from rebel gains.

Many rebels expect Gaddafi to make another strong attempt to take the city, but they dismiss claims that the tribes will be sent in instead of soldiers. Ahmed Mohamed Said, a computer engineer turned rebel, said it was a ruse to make the conflict look like civil war, rather than a government turning on its own people, and thus prevent Nato from assisting the rebels from the air. "Gaddafi wants it to look like brothers are fighting brothers," he said. "That will never happen."

Gaddafi's forces have faced setbacks in Misrata and the western mountain region, close to the Tunisian border. And Kaim acknowledged that loyalist troops had failed to take control of the port city after two months of siege. He said: "The tactic of the army was to have a surgical strike but, with the [Nato] air strikes, that doesn't work."

He added: "The leaders of the tribes decided to do something to bring normal life back. Their main demand is that foreign fighters leave the town or surrender themselves to the army."

The regime maintains that rebels fighting in Misrata and the east of the country are being driven by al-Qaida and Hezbollah militants – a claim rejected by the opposition.

Kaim said the tribal leaders want to reopen access to the port, which has been under the control of rebel forces since the siege began. The port served all Libyans, he said, but was of particular interest to tribes south of Misrata.

"The leaders of the tribes are determined to find a solution to this problem within 48 hours," he added. "The other option is military intervention."

He claimed the six tribes in the region could muster a force of 60,000 men to "liberate" the city. Any assault by the tribal forces would be ruthless, he claimed.

"The tribal leaders are pushing to intervene militarily," he said. "We have to do our utmost to stop this. If the tribes move into the city, it will be very bloody, and I hope to God we will avoid this."

On the ground, the rebels expanded on their gains of recent days. They said a large hospital under renovation in the city centre, which was used by Gaddafi's forces as a base, is now clear.

A small number of government troops appeared still to be hiding out in residential buildings and gun battles could be heard around the city. But most of the government forces and heavy weaponry remain concentrated beyond Misrata's southern highway.

Late last night three Libyan state television stations went briefly off air after three loud explosions were heard in central Tripoli soon after midnight. Libyan Television, Jamahiriya and Shababiya all stopped broadcasting but returned to air within half an hour.

In areas recaptured by rebels over the past two days, there is evidence of a crushing battlefield defeat of regime forces. In the city's main market, a large covered area open on the sides, there are six destroyed tanks and a burning petrol tanker. Thousands of machine-gun shells litter the ground, along with several cases used to carry mortar bombs. Most of the buildings nearby are badly damaged or destroyed by gunfire or shells.

Further south, near the technical college that was the scene of fierce fighting on Saturday, two large houses that had been occupied by Gaddafi's troops for a fortnight were black with smoke. At least 16 government soldiers were killed there, a rebel fighter said. Two charred bodies lay in the living room.

On the southern highway, controlled by the government until Sunday, a tank had nosedived into a trench dug across the road by the rebels. A burnt pickup truck was nearby, its cargo of rocket-propelled grenade launchers smouldering next to it. Green uniforms discarded by fleeing soldiers had been flung nearby.

"There was no retreat, just fighting, and we forced them back," said Hassan Mohamed, a rebel fighter.sumber