Libyan Rebels Attacks on Gaddafi Forces, On Ajdabiya

Published on April 18, 2011 by Anil · 1 Comment

Libya’s rebels, fighting mainly from pickup trucks mounted with machine guns, repelled an attack from Muammar Qaddafi’s forces on the city of Ajdabiya. Qaddafi loyalists had earlier shelled Ajdabiya, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Mustafa Gheriani, spokesman for the rebels’ National Transitional Council, said in an interview.

Rebels have struggled for weeks to take and hold cities in central Libya, which have been the focus of most of the fighting since the uprising began in February, calling for deliveries of heavy weaponry and for the coalition led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to increase attacks.

“The rebels don’t have the logistics or organization to move forward with major objectives at this time,” said Andrew Terrill, a Middle East specialist at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. “Unless we see large scale surrender from Qaddafi loyalists, I don’t see too many cities changing hands.”

Qaddafi’s bombing of Misrata, the main rebel-held city in the west and Libya’s third-largest city, killed 17 people yesterday, Al Jazeera television reported. About 300,000 civilians are trapped in Misrata.