Rebels In Libya Capture Key Oil Ports

Libyan rebels have captured another major oil port in their crusade to try to regain control of their country from the reign of leader Muammar Gaddafi.  The rebels are continuing towards the west side of the country trying to gain control of major cities.  According to Fox, the rebels have reported that their are little to no Gaddafi forces located in the cities that have captured. Find out more info after the jump.

@Julie1205

ibyan rebels have taken a second key oil port as they continue their push west toward Tripoli. The anti-government uprising has gained newfound momentum after international airstrikes began targeting Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi’s military over a week ago.

After seizing Brega, a main oil export terminal in the eastern half of the country, the movement captured the oil refinery of Ras Lanouf on Sunday.

Ras Lanouf and Brega combined are responsible for 1.5 million barrels of Libya’s daily oil exports, which have all but stopped since the uprising began on Feb. 15.

“There was no resistance. Qaddafi’s forces just melted away,” said Suleiman Ibrahim, a 31-year-old volunteer, sitting in the back of a pickup truck. “This couldn’t have happened without NATO. They gave us big support.” He said that rebels had already reached Ras Lanouf.

After being stymied for weeks by the heavy weapons of Muammar al-Qaddafi’s army, rebels captured the city of Ajadibya Saturday and then swept into the oil town of Brega on Sunday.

International air strikes have destroyed much of the government’s heavy weaponry in the area.

“There are no Qaddafi forces here now, the rebels have Brega under their full control, it is free,” said rebel commander Ahmed Jibril from the westernmost edge of the town near the entrance to the oil facility.

“There was a small fight in Brega yesterday evening and the Qaddafi forces fled,” he added.

A Libyan government spokesman told Reuters in Tripoli that Qaddafi was still directing his forces, but hinted that the leader could be moving around the country in an effort to maintain the secrecy of his whereabouts.

The Pope also urged immediate dialogue aimed at suspending the use of arms in Libya Sunday.

Ajdabiya’s initial loss to Qaddafi may have ultimately been what saved the rebels from imminent defeat, propelling the U.S. and its allies to swiftly pull together the air campaign now crippling Qaddafi’s military. Its recapture gives President Barack Obama a tangible victory just as he faces criticism for bringing the United States into yet another war.

In Ajdabiya, drivers honked in celebration and flew the tricolor rebel flag. Others in the city fired guns into the air and danced on burned-out tanks that littered the road.

Their hold on the east secure again, the rebels promised to resume their march westward that had been reversed by Qaddafi’s overwhelming firepower.

French warplanes Saturday led an attack on Misurata Airport. They destroyed five Libyan planes and two helicopters, according to a spokesman for the French Ministry of Defense.

Pentagon officials say they considering more firepower and airborne surveillance systems to find and attack enemy troops in Libya.

“Without the planes we couldn’t have done this. Qaddafi’s weapons are at a different level than ours,” said Ahmed Faraj, 38, a rebel fighter from Ajdabiya. “With the help of the planes we are going to push onward to Tripoli, God willing.”

The Qaddafi regime acknowledged the airstrikes had forced its troops to retreat and accused international forces of choosing sides.

“This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,” Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in Tripoli. “They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.”

Ajdabiya’s sudden capture by Qaddafi’s troops on March 15 — and their move toward the rebel capital of Benghazi — gave impetus to the U.N. resolution authorizing international action in Libya, and its return to rebel hands on Saturday came after a week of airstrikes and missiles against the Libyan leader’s military.

The Pentagon said U.S.-led forces pounded Libyan ground troops and other targets along the Mediterranean coast and in Tripoli, Ajdabiya and the western contested city of Misrata in strikes overnight, but they provided no details on what was hit. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Darryn James, says there were no Tomahawk cruise missile strikes overnight.

Altogether, the Pentagon said the U.S. military launched nearly 100 strikes overnight, just slightly higher than a day ago.

Airstrikes Friday on the city’s eastern and western gates forced Qaddafi’s troops into hasty retreat. Inside a building that had served as their makeshift barracks and storage, hastily discarded uniforms were piled in the bathroom and books on Islamic and Greek history and fake pink flowers were scattered on the floor.

Saif Sadawi, a 20-year-old rebel fighter with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in his hands, said the city’s eastern gate fell late Friday and the western gate fell at dawn Saturday after airstrikes on both locations.

“All of Ajdabiya is free,” he said.

Rebels swept into the city and hauled away a captured rocket launcher and a dozen boxes of anti-aircraft ammunition, adding to their limited firepower. Later in the day, other rebels drove around and around a traffic circle, jubilantly firing an assortment of weapons in the air — anti-aircraft weapons, AK-47s, RPGs.

Outside the city, Muftah el-Zewi was driving away, his back seat loaded with plastic bags filled with blankets and clothes that he picked up after going to his home in Ajdabiya for the first time in days.

“We went and checked it out, drove around the neighborhood and it looked OK. Hopefully we’ll come back to stay tomorrow,” he said.

The turnaround is a boost for Obama, who has faced complaints from lawmakers from both parties that he has not sought their input about the U.S. role in the conflict or explained with enough clarity about the American goals and exit strategy. Obama was expected to give a speech to the nation Monday.

“We’re succeeding in our mission,” Obama said in a radio and Internet address. “So make no mistake, because we acted quickly, a humanitarian catastrophe has been avoided and the lives of countless civilians — innocent men, women and children — have been saved.”

The U.N. Security Council authorized the operation to protect Libyan civilians after Qaddafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after 42 years in power. The airstrikes have crippled Qaddafi’s forces, but rebel advances have also foundered, and the two sides have been at stalemate in key cities.

Pentagon officials say that forces loyal to Qaddafi are a potent threat to civilians. And they are looking at plans to expand the firepower and airborne surveillance systems in the military campaign, including using the Air Force’s AC-130 gunship armed with cannons that shoot from the side doors, as well as helicopters and drones.

Former Libyan ambassador to the United States Ali Aujali called Libya a unique situation.
“If no action will be taken, we will have another massacre in Africa that will be remembered like Srebrenica and Rwanda,” he said. “It was the right action at the right time.”

Ajdabiya, the gateway to the opposition’s eastern stronghold, and the western city of Misrata have suffered under sieges of more than a week because the rebels lack the heavy weapons to push out Gadhafi’s troops. Residents lack electricity, phone lines and water.

A doctor in Misrata said airstrikes there on Saturday put an end to two days of shelling and sniper fire from Qaddafi’s forces. The city was quiet Saturday afternoon, said the doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety if the city should fall. For now, he said, rebels control the city center, just as they have throughout in Ajdabiya.

A resident of Zwara, a former rebel stronghold in the west, said the regime has the town firmly in its grip again. He said pro-Qaddafi forces are dragging away people there and in the town of Zawiya who participated in protests that began Feb. 15.

“They have lists of demonstrators and videos and so on and they are seeking them out. We are all staying home and waiting for this to be over,” said the resident, who did not want to be named because he feared for his safety if discovered. He said a friend who helped coordinate checkpoints when the opposition held the city was taken away Friday.

“They came with four or five cars with four people in each one, all of them armed to the teeth with Kalashnikovs. They surrounded the house and took him out,” he said, adding that the whole thing was seen by a common friend.

He said neighbors now fear each other.

“During the demonstrations, many people contributed to the community, doing anything they could. This shows that the regime has collaborators to give them names. It’s a Big Brother type of show, so they can come in and take whomever they want.”

The government’s grip has even tightened in Tripoli, its seat of power, where almost nightly airstrikes have hammered military bases, missile storage and even Qaddafi’s residential compound.

Rahma, a Libyan-American in the capital, said only about one in 20 stores was open and food supplies were dwindling by the day.

“My own family, we’ve just been staying inside, but we had a friend who went to Friday prayers and they could see people ready to shoot them hiding behind the bushes,” she said. She did not want her surname used, for fear of retaliation. “This is at every mosque, so if they start to protest, they’ll get shot right away.”