Perilous
Times
NATO destroys 8 Libyan warships
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 20, 2011 1:17 p.m. EDT
NATO strikes hit Libyan warships
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: African Union leaders to meet May 25-26 on Libyan
conflict
Overnight airstrikes target ships in three Libyan ports
NATO says Moammar Gadhafi was using naval assets to attack
civilians
Fighting is reported in several border areas
(CNN) -- NATO jets pounded Libyan ports overnight, destroying
eight of Moammar Gadhafi's warships, an alliance spokesman said
Friday.
NATO targeted the ships in Tripoli, Al-Khums and Sirte after it
was apparent that Gadhafi's forces were increasingly using naval
vessels to launch attacks on civilians, said Mike Bracken, NATO's
military spokesman. He said Gadhafi was indiscriminately mining
waters in Misrata and hampering the flow of humanitarian aid.
"He was using maritime forces to lay mines. These were legal
targets," Bracken said at a briefing in Brussels, Belgium.
He did not say whether crew members were aboard when the ships
were hit.
Bracken said the NATO campaign is progressing and Gadhafi's combat
power had been severely curtailed.
But the Libyan leader's forces continued their heavy shelling of
Dehiba, on the Tunisian border, where thousands of refugees have
amassed in recent weeks. The border crossing, through which
humanitarian aid is often trucked in, was closed Friday.
Earlier in the week, rebel forces in the Nafusa Mountains of
western Libya were under such heavy attack that they issued a call
for help, the National Transitional Council in Benghazi said.
They were faring better along southern borders, according to a
report by the International Medical Corps, which has teams in
various locations in Libya and Tunisia. The report said rebels
gained control of the border crossings between Libya and Sudan,
and Libya and Chad, and regained control of Kufra in the
southeast.
The global medical organization said rebel control along the Chad
border was significant because of material supplies that flow
through there to Gadhafi's forces.
"While control of the entire border will be difficult, the rebels
are reported to have a large force in the region," it said. "The
Niger and Morocco border crossings remain under Gadhafi control."
The International Medical Corps also reported constant shelling by
pro-Gadhafi forces in Zintan, where at least one person was killed
and six were brought to hospitals. The group also reported heavy
fighting in the besieged city of Yefren, where the group said the
situation was deteriorating with food and medical supplies in
short supply.
Meanwhile, the African Union announced it would hold a two-day
meeting of heads of state in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa
next week to address the conflict in Libya, as well as other
security issues in Africa.
In another development, the family of South African freelance
photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who has been missing in Libya since
April, said late Thursday they now believe he was killed by Libyan
government forces.
The statement was posted on the "Free photographer Anton Hammerl"
Facebook page and follows interviews given in The New York Times,
Global Post and The Atlantic by two journalists who say they were
with him at the time he was shot.
"On 5 April 2011, Anton was shot by Gaddafi's forces in an
extremely remote location in the Libyan desert. According to
eyewitnesses, his injuries were such that he could not have
survived without medical attention," according to the Facebook
statement.
Hammerl was last reportedly seen in a remote region of the Libyan
desert. He was reportedly captured by Gadhafi's forces near the
town of al-Brega, a key oil town in eastern Libya, that has been
the site of intense fighting.