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Perilous
Times
NATO widens airstrike attack on Libya
By Diaa Hadid and Slobodan Lekic
From: AP
May 22, 2011 6:36PM
NATO widened its campaign to weaken Muammar Gaddafi's regime with
airstrikes on desert command centres and sea patrols to intercept
ships, the military alliance said on Saturday, amid signs of
growing public anger over fuel shortages in government-held
territory.
Early today, NATO raids again targeted the sprawling, heavily
fortified Gaddafi compound in the capital Tripoli, said government
spokesman Ibrahim Uthman.
The spokesman earlier said a NATO strike hit the port but later
said that information was incorrect.
Mr Uthman said he believed four people were hit in the strike, but
the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.
In the coastal town of Zawiya, crowds apparently outraged by
dwindling fuel supplies tried to stab reporters in a minibus on a
state-supervised trip to the Tunisian border.
The journalists - a Chinese news correspondent and two Britons: a
BBC technician and a Reuters video producer - were not harmed in
the attack, the first of its kind targeting foreign reporters
covering the Libyan conflict.
The assailants also attacked the government official accompanying
the reporters - once unimaginable in Libya and a sign of the
growing frustrations of residents struggling to cope with rising
food prices and petrol shortages.
Gaddafi has remained defiant against the widening NATO attacks and
international pressure to step down.
At the same time, however, NATO has come under increasing
criticism that it is overstepping the UN Security Council's
mandate, which provides for the protection of civilians but not
for wider attacks.
The Pan African Parliament, the legislative body of the African
Union, plans an emergency session next week to discuss what it
calls NATO's "military aggression".
On Friday, NATO also struck a facility near the capital and a
command and control hub near Sebha, a Gaddafi stronghold deep in
Libya's southwestern desert, a NATO statement said in Brussels.
Three surface-to-air missile launchers were hit near the
government-held town of Sirte, and three rocket launchers near the
rebel-held town of Zintan in the mountains south of Tripoli.
On Friday, NATO warplanes also bombed eight Libyan naval vessels
in three ports, leaving ships partially sunken and charred and
showering docks with debris in the military alliance's broadest
attack on Gaddafi's navy.
NATO spokesman Wing Cmdr Mike Bracken said the vessels were
"legitimate and legal targets" because the Libyan navy had tried
to mine the harbour at the rebel-held port of Misrata and had
attempted to carry out attacks on shipping there.
Commandant Omran al-Forjani, head of Libya's coast guard, claimed
the targeted ships were used to patrol Libyan waters for boats
carrying African migrants trying to make the dangerous sea
crossing to Europe and for search-and-rescue operations.
A NATO taskforce has also boarded 47 vessels - including one on
Friday - and seven ships suspected of carrying arms have been
diverted since the naval operation started in mid-March.
The latest vessel to be boarded was identified as the MV Jupiter,
NATO said on Saturday.
The tanker, whose registration remained unclear, was carrying
petrol and was instructed not to continue to Libya "because we had
reason to believe it was intended for military purposes", a NATO
official said.
"It's clear to NATO that Gaddafi's regime is diverting fuel to its
war machine," said the official who could not be identified under
standing rules.
The attack on the foreign journalists took place as their vehicle
was caught in a traffic jam caused by miles-long lines of cars
waiting for days for fuel, the journalists said.
Men from the fuel line smashed the bus door and approached the
three reporters with a kitchen knife and two others brandished
pistols.
They demanded to know where the reporters were from and accused
them of filming the gas line. Attackers slashed the bus tyres in
an attempt to prevent the reporters from fleeing.
Several plainclothes security agents fired into the air around the
bus to drive back the crowd.
Another security man boarded the bus and pushed out the attackers.
Police led the bus to a nearby station for the reporters' safety.
Also yesterday, rights group Amnesty International said hundreds
of men have disappeared from Misrata, the rebels' main toehold in
western Libya. The London-based group said Libyan forces seized
the men in house raids, from mosques and from the front line where
some of them were fighting.
The Amnesty staff, who are currently based in Misrata, cited the
case of the el-Toumi family. They said during a house raid on
March 18, government forces seized seven brothers, two cousins and
an uncle, who are still missing.
The rights group said they interviewed one woman who said a
soldier forced her to pull up her dress.
She said he fondled her, but was then hushed by her family who did
not want to bring attention to the case.
In Paris, France's Foreign Ministry said four Frenchmen held by
Libyan rebel forces on suspicion of spying have been released and
are now in Egypt.
The four worked for a private security company and were detained
by Libya's rebel forces at a checkpoint on May 12 in Benghazi, the
eastern Libya base for rebel forces.
A rebel commander at the time accused them of spying.
The fifth member of the group had died of wounds he suffered after
being shot at the checkpoint.