Libyans take back another key oil city as loyalists to Moammar Gaddafi wilt in the face of air strikes
Libyans take back another key oil city as loyalists to Moammar Gaddafi wilt in the face of air strikes
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The rebels, on the verge of losing their eastern stronghold city of Benghazi before the air war began on March 19, on Saturday seized back Ajdabiya and Brega, 160 and 240 kilometres to the west.
In Tripoli, government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said overnight that the Western-led air strikes were killing soldiers and civilians between the strategic town of Ajdabiya and Sirte.
"Tonight the air strikes against our nation continue with full power," he said. "We are losing many lives, military and civilians," Ibrahim added while repeating a call for a ceasefire and an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.
'Planting bodies'
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused Gaddafi's forces of planting bodies "of the people he's killed" at target sites to make it look as they were civilian victims.
US President Barack Obama, under pressure to explain his strategy to Americans, said the international mission had saved countless innocents from a "bloodbath" threatened by Gaddafi.
On Saturday, the rebels, backed by the Western barrage, poured into Ajdabiya, where destroyed tanks and military vehicles littered road.
The bodies of at least two pro-Gaddafi fighters were surrounded by onlookers taking photos, while a mosque and many houses bore the scars of heavy shelling as the rebels celebrated, firing into the air and shouting "God is great."
Regime loyalists had dug in at Ajdabiya after being forced back from the road to Benghazi by the first coalition air strikes. A rebel fighter said that insurgents had also retaken the oil town of Brega on Saturday.
However, at least three people were killed in Misrata, a doctor said, bringing the total death toll to 117 there, with more than 1,300 wounded.
'Imperialists'
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sharply criticised the coalition's approach and called the air strikes 'an imperialist military intervention' and said "terrorists" had infiltrated groups of Libyan rebels.
Raped!
Iman al-Obeidi, a Libyan woman claims she was gang raped for two days by 15u00a0 members of a paramilitary force loyal to Moammar Gaddafi. She alleged that she had been detained at a checkpoint, tied up, sexually abused her and then led her away to be gang raped. "They tied me up ... they even defecated and urinated on me," she said. "The militiamen violated my honour."
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