NATO intensifies air strikes on Gadaffi positions

Rebel fighter carries his food ration MISRATA, Libya  - Gulf News and Agencies Libyan rebels said at least eight of their fighters were killed repelling a government attack on Misrata on Saturday,

but praised NATO after it carried out several air strikes on government positions, Reuters reported. The fighting centred on the Nakl Al Theqeel road to Misrata’s rebel-controlled port, where a Red Cross-chartered vessel carrying medical supplies had docked earlier. A rebel fighter who identified himself as Mustafa Abdulrahman said NATO had intensified its air strikes on government forces laying siege to Libya’s third city.“I have to say that the NATO forces have changed since yesterday, we are sensing a positive change. They have bombed at least four sites held by Qadhafi’s forces in Misrata,” he told Reuters by telephone.

A Reuters correspondent on a government-organised trip to Misrata described deserted streets in the south of the city and said many buildings had been heavily shelled.NATO warplanes struck one government position on the Tripoli road, a main artery that cuts through to the city centre, which pro-Gadaffi and rebel forces have been fighting to control for the past few days, Abdulrahman said.NATO missiles also hit two sites on the main coast road and one near the western gate of the city, which lies about 200 kilometres east of Tripoli, he added.Coalition aircraft also attacked a target in the southern outskirts of the city, a Libyan official said. “This smoke is from a NATO air strike which hit today,” the official said, pointing to a plume of black smoke.“The Gadaffi forces received supplies last night and reinforcements on the eastern side of the city. It seems they want to enter the port,” Abdulrahman said, according to Reuters. Also on Saturday, Agence France-Presse quoted a NATO official as saying that NATO warplanes intercepted a MiG-23 fighter jet operated by a Libyan rebel pilot yhe jet had taken off from a rebel-controlled airfield near the eastern city of Benghazi in the morning and was intercepted within minutes, the official said on condition of anonymity, AFP reported.“No aggressive action was displayed by the MiG-23 and the NATO fighters proceeded to force it to land back at the Benina airfield,” the official said.

Gadaffi's forces shelled the western outskirts of Ajdabiyah, launch point for rebel attacks towards the Mediterranean oil port of Brega. A Reuters correspondent heard artillery impacts and machinegun fire for around 30 minutes, coming from the western boundary of the town, the gateway to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi 150 kilometres to the northeast. Al Jazeera television said Gadaffi forces had entered Ajdabiyah.  A buoyant Muammar Gadaffi made his first television appearance for five days on Saturday, Reuters reported. Gadaffi looking confident and relaxed in his trademark brown robes and dark glasses, was last seen on television on 4th Apri.

Inconclusive see-saw battles have raged along the desert road between Brega and Ajdabiyah for over a week after Gadaffi's military pushed back a rebel advance.NATO air strikes hit weapons depots belonging to Gadaffi  forces near Zintan, south of Tripoli, on Friday, a resident said, according to Reuters. An oil tanker carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude that the rebels need to finance their uprising entered the Suez Canal on Saturday after leaving rebel-held east Libya. Traders say it is heading for China with the first cargo the rebels have sold.

Meanwhile, a Libyan opposition group is asking the US for immediate access to frozen assets of Gadaffi to pay for humanitarian needs in rebel-held areas. Ali Aujali, who resigned in February as Libya’s ambassador to the United States and now heads Libya’s most prominent rebel organisation, in a letter to US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the humanitarian conditions have deteriorated in areas held by the rebels. Aujali, in the letter dated Thursday, said his group, the transitional national council, “needs immediate access to the Gadaffi regime’s frozen assets in US financial institutions to meet the basic needs of the Libyan people,” Reuters reported yesterday. The United States has frozen more than $34 billion in assets as part of sanctions against Gadaffi  and his top officials.The treasury department on Friday added five senior officials - Libya’s prime minister, finance minister, oil minister, internal security director and Gadaffi's  chief of staff - and two entities controlled by Gadaffi's  children to its sanctions blacklist. Obama administration officials have said they were looking into whether some of the frozen cash, securities and other financial instruments could be used to aid the Libyan rebel effort.