Gadhafi vows no surrender in Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Moammar Gadhafi warned from hiding Thursday that tribes loyal to him were well-armed and preparing for battle, hours after rebels hoping for a peaceful surrender extended the deadline for loyalist forces to give up in the longtime Libyan leader's hometown.

Gadhafi's audio statement, broadcast by Syrian-based Al-Rai TV, came as the rebels said they were closing in on the former dictator.

"We won't surrender again; we are not women, we will keep fighting," Gadhafi said. His voice was recognizable, and Al-Rai has previously broadcast several statements by Gadhafi and his sons.

Rebels have been hunting for the Libyan leader since he was forced into hiding after they swept into Tripoli on Aug. 20 and gained control of most of the capital after days of fierce fighting.

Opposition fighters, backed by NATO airstrikes, have been advancing toward three regime strongholds: Sirte; Bani Walid, 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli; and Sabha, in the southern desert. All three places had been given a deadline of Saturday to surrender. While the deadline extension was officially only for Sirte, rebels said it would also include Bani Walid and Sabha.

There has been speculation that Gadhafi is hiding in one of those three towns.

Gadhafi's wife, Safiya, sons Mohammed and Hannibal, and daughter Aisha fled to Algeria on Monday, firm evidence that the longtime leader has lost his grip on the country. Aisha gave birth to her fourth child Tuesday in Algeria.

The Algerian newspaper El Watan reported that Gadhafi himself also sought refuge, but the Algerian president refused to take his phone calls. Algeria's foreign minister insisted Thursday that Gadhafi is not in Algeria. Asked on Europe-1 radio if Gadhafi could be given asylum, Mourad Medelci said, "I don't believe so."

Gadhafi was last heard on Aug. 25 in an audio recording calling on supporters to defend Tripoli.

In Thursday's message, Gadhafi said the tribes in Sirte and Bani Walid are armed and "there is no way they will submit." He called for continued resistance, warning "the battle will be long and let Libya burn."

But the rebels, who have effectively ended Gadhafi's rule, insist the fight is going in their favor.

"The regime is dying," rebel council spokesman Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga said late Wednesday, after two of Gadhafi's sons made conflicting statements on Arab television stations — with one vowing to fight until death and the other offering to negotiate a truce. "Gadhafi's family is trying to find an exit," Ghoga said. "They only have to surrender completely to the rebels and we will offer them a fair trial. We won't hold negotiations with them over anything."

Ghoga said Thursday that the rebels had extended the deadline for Sirte's surrender, giving the loyalist forces there one more week. "There are good indications that things are moving in the right direction," he said, including that the rebels have captured a city near Sirte.

Ahmed Said, an adviser to the interior minister in the rebels' interim government, said rebel forces had captured Gadhafi's foreign minister. He did not identify him by name, but "can confirm that he is in custody." He offered no further details to confirm the capture.

A week ago, Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi told British broadcaster Channel 4 that Gadhafi's rule was over.

Thursday marks the coup against the monarchy of King Idris by 27-year-old Gadhafi and a group of military officers. Gadhafi took undisputed power and became a symbol of anti-Western defiance in a Third World recently liberated from its European colonial rulers. A brutal dictator, his regime was unchallenged until the uprising that began in February.

Rebels say they are carefully pulling together clues about Gadhafi's whereabouts from captured regime fighters and others, and learned earlier this week that Gadhafi and two of his sons — longtime heir-apparent Seif al-Islam and former special forces commander al-Saadi — were in the loyalist-controlled town of Bani Walid, said Ghoga. But, he added, it's not clear where they are now.

Sixty world leaders and top-level envoys are meeting Thursday in Paris on Libya's future. The gathering is likely to focus on unfreezing billions in Libyan funds held abroad and reconciling differences over how to deal with the new Libya. The lessons of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and years of insurgent violence there will loom large.

The European Union, meanwhile, is lifting its sanctions on Libyan ports, banks and energy firms, officials said Thursday.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the goal was to provide resources to the interim government to help kick-start the North African country's economy.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Rebels: Gadhafi son offers to surrender

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Moammar Gadhafi's son al-Saadi is trying to negotiate the terms of his own surrender, the rebel commander in Tripoli told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The commander, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, said al-Saadi first called him Tuesday and asked whether his safety could be guaranteed. "We told him 'Don't fear for your life. We will guarantee your rights as a human being, and will deal with you humanely,' said Belhaj, who added that al-Saadi would be turned over to legal authorities.

Libyans wave flags in Green Square, renamed Martyr's Square,
for the morning Eid prayer, marking the end of Ramadan and to
celebrate their victory over embattled Moammar Gadhafi, inTripoli, Libya, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

If the offer is confirmed — the rebels have previously claimed to have captured Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who hours later turned up free — the surrender would be a major blow to Gadhafi's crumbling regime. The rebels have been pressing toward Gadhafi's last major stronghold, his hometown of Sirte, and loyalists now only control a handful of major cities.

Belhaj said Al-Saadi told him he had not killed anyone, and that "he was not against the people."

"I told him 'This is good. What is important for us is not to shed Libyan blood. For the members of the regime to surrender is the best way to do this,'" Belhaj said.

The commander said al-Saadi had called back early Wednesday morning, but that he had missed the call. He said he knows al-Saadi's whereabouts, but prefers to negotiate a surrender. He gave no further details.

Belhaj's comments came hours after Gadhafi's chief spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, called the AP headquarters in NY, reiterating the senior Gadhafi's offer to send al-Saadi to negotiate with the rebels and form a transitional government. The rebels have previously rejected such offers.

Ibrahim also rejected a rebel ultimatum for loyalists in Sirte to surrender by Saturday or face an attack.

There has been speculation that Gadhafi is seeking refuge in Sirte or one of the other remaining regime strongholds, among them the towns of Bani Walid or Sabha. Top rebel officials say they have "a good idea" where Gadhafi is hiding, but haven't given any details.

"No dignified honorable nation would accept an ultimatum from armed gangs," he said. Ibrahim reiterated Gadhafi's offer to send his son al-Saadi to negotiate with rebels and form a transitional government.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Libyan rebels claim taking post on Tunisian border

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A Libyan rebel leader said Thursday that opposition forces have control of a post on the Tunisian border near a former rebel-held town, which could open a new channel for anti-government forces in Moammar Gadhafi's bastion in western Libya.

In the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya, meanwhile, relief workers and medical teams awaited the arrival of a passenger ferry carrying about 1,000 people — mostly Libyan civilians and workers from Asia and Africa — out of the besieged city of Misrata, the main rebel holdout in Gadhafi's territory.

Libyan rebel fighters guard at a checkpoint at the streets of Misrata, Libya Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Inside the besieged city of Misrata, spent rockets protrude from the pavement of a parking lot, unarmed teenagers prepare plastic crates of Molotov cocktails, and fighters at roadblocks sit inside empty shipping containers outfitted with furniture, carpets and generator-powered TVs and watch Al-Jazeera reports of their war with Moammar Gadhafi. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Also aboard the vessel were the bodies of an Oscar-nominated documentary maker from Britain and an American photographer who were killed covering clashes Wednesday. A day earlier, the ferry arrived in Misrata, delivering food and medical supplies to the beleaguered population.

The reported capture of the border crossing followed three days of intense fighting outside the desert town of Nalut, about 140 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of the capital Tripoli, said a rebel leader, Shaban Abu Sitta. The area was in hands of anti-government forces last month before Libyan troops moved in.

Holding the Dhuheiba border crossing could open important supply routes for anti-Gadhafi forces and give the rebels another foothold in western Libya. The claim could not be independently verified. Moammar Gadhafi's forces have sharply restricted the movement of journalists in the areas they control in western Libya.

"Rebels are now manning Dhuheiba crossing," said Abu Sitta, who claimed his fighters destroyed 30 army pickup trucks and captured 10 cars and some weapons.

On the Ionian Spirit ferry — part of a maritime lifeline to Misrata — Libyan civilians and migrants workers packed the decks, hallways and every other available space. In the ship's Panorama Bar, evacuees tossed mattresses onto the wooden dance floor. Women slipped behind a curtain to change.

The injured were brought to the lower level of the ship, where an 11-member medical team set up a makeshift intensive care unit.

Jeremy Haslam, a coordinator from the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, said the boat has more than 1,000 evacuees including 239 Libyan civilians and 586 migrants from Niger and others from Africa and Asia.

He said some Libyans tried to flee Misrata aboard a tug boat, but were turned away because the vessel was overcrowded. Some managed to get aboard the ferry.

"We are carrying more than we are supposed to but it's better than letting these people leave on a tugboat," said Haslam.

The number of people seeking to flee Misrata has surged as Libyan forces expand their shelling to areas once considered relatively safe havens from attacks.

"Our neighborhood became a war zone so we had to get out," said Faiza Stayta, who made it aboard the ferry with her husband and two children. "All the firing is random. You hear a rocket and how have no idea if it will come down on your house."

The vessel carried the bodies of Chris Hondros, a New York-based photographer for Getty Images, and British-born Tim Hetherington, co-director of the 2010 Afghanistan war documentary "Restrepo" that was nominated for an Academy Award. The film was co-directed by Sebastian Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm."

They were killed Wednesday in an attack that also injured two other photographers. A statement from Hetherington's family said he was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade. The ship also held the body of a Ukrainian doctor killed Wednesday from an artillery blast, said Haslam of the IOM.

The group is planning to send another ship to Misrata carrying 500 tons of food and medical supplies. The IOM said it has evacuated more than 3,100 people from Misrata.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Up to the job? NATO criticized over Libya campaign

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO is showing some strains after nine days in charge of the allied military operation in Libya.

First, the military alliance holds its fire as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces advance a full 100 miles (160 kilometers) into rebel-held territory. Then NATO accidentally opens fire on Libyan rebels in tanks — a top general says NATO didn't know the rebels had any — even though footage of rebels with tanks had been on YouTube for weeks.

In this photo provided by NATO, Rear Admiral Russ Harding, deputy commander of NATO's Libya operation, speaks during a press conference in Naples, Italy, Friday, April 8, 2011. NATO acknowledged Friday that its airstrikes had hit rebels using tanks to fight government forces in eastern Libya, but said it would not apologize for the deaths because no one told them the rebels had tanks. British Rear Adm. Russell Harding, the deputy commander of the NATO operation, said in the past, only forces loyal to Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi had used heavy armored vehicles. (AP Photo/NATO)

NATO's leadership of the air attack campaign is coming under increasing criticism for mistakes and ineffectiveness — particularly in comparison with the previous American-led effort.

"This is something new. We haven't had a significant military operation in which the Americans have taken a back seat for quite some time," Malcolm Chalmers, a professor of defense at London's Kings College, said Friday. "It really is unclear whether the Europeans can rise to that challenge."

The NATO bombing of a rebel convoy on Thursday, in which five people died and a number of rebel tanks were destroyed, appears to have crystalized the perception — to outsiders, at least — that the alliance is running a bumbling campaign.

But as the rebels angrily accused the alliance of mistakes and neglect, NATO's frustrated leaders refused to apologize Friday for the bombing of the tanks. And NATO commanders, in turn, are frustrated that the rebels see NATO as their proxy air force, rather than a force to protect civilians in Libya.

Analysts say the recent developments have brought into sharp relief the confusion, ambiguity and constraints of NATO's mission in Libya, which began nine days ago when the North Atlantic alliance assumed command from a U.S.-led coalition that launched the air war on March 19.

There is significant ambiguity about the scope and objective of the mission. The U.N. resolution under which the alliance operates requires it to protect civilians from Gadhafi's forces while remaining impartial.

"There's a very difficult trade-off for NATO here," Chalmers said. "If they wait until they're absolutely certain that they've got the targets right and that there are no civilians, Gadhafi's forces will have vanished in the confusion by then."

Adding to NATO's woes, the U.S. — which handed off its leadership role March 31 — then went further and halted its combat role earlier this week. That move is depriving NATO of certain kinds of aircraft that could prove useful in some of the close urban warfare battles between forces loyal to Gadhafi and rebels bent on his ouster.

NATO acknowledged Friday that its airstrikes had hit rebels using tanks to fight government forces in eastern Libya, saying it thought only Gadhafi regime forces had used heavy armored vehicles.

Yet if NATO did not know, that seems extraordinary: Video and photos from the start of the uprising against Gadhafi's rule a month ago showed that some Libyan armored units had changed sides in the early stages of the rebellion, bringing their equipment with them.

On Friday, British Rear Adm. Russell Harding — deputy commander of the NATO operation — also said it was difficult for allied pilots to distinguish between rebels and regime troops engaged in a series of advances and retreats between the eastern coastal towns of Brega and Ajdabiya.

"I am not apologizing (for the bombing)," Harding told reporters in Naples, where the alliance's operational center is located. "The situation on the ground was and remains extremely fluid, and until yesterday we did not have information that (rebel) forces are using tanks."

NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed regret over the rebels' loss of life, but he too offered no apology.

Complicating matters further for NATO, ground fire over the Libyan battlefields remains a serious threat to any jet making low-level passes — a must for pilots trying to positively identify enemy forces in a fast-changing situation.

Although the first U.S.-led strikes on Libyan targets quickly destroyed most of Gadhafi's fixed surface-to-air missile emplacements and the radars that control them, Gadhafi's forces are believed to have hundreds of automatic cannons and shoulder-launched rockets — including sophisticated Russian-built Iglas — that can easily down planes like A-10 Thunderbolts or AC-130 gunships at low altitudes.

NATO learned this the hard way during the 1999 war in Kosovo, where a number of its attack jets were struck by ground fire and had to make emergency landings on nearby alliance-held airports. Commanders then ordered the pilots not to descend lower than 5,000 meters (15,000 feet), keeping them outside the killing range of guns but drastically reducing the effectiveness of their bombing attacks on Serbian ground forces.

Now, NATO jets are again operating mainly at higher altitudes, where Iglas and Gadhafi's pickup-mounted 37mm and 20mm guns cannot reach them.

Harding said Friday that NATO jets had conducted 318 sorties and struck 23 targets across Libya in the past 48 hours. They have flown over 1,500 sorties since assuming overall command.

The jets have destroyed Gadhafi's anti-aircraft missile defenses, T-72 tanks and ammunition dumps, Harding said. The NATO attacks have also targeted Gadhafi's loyalist forces in the besieged city of Misrata, where rebels continue to hold out.

But critics have questioned NATO's limited mandate of only protecting civilians directly threatened by Gadhafi's troops, rather than trying to eliminate the threat completely by destroying the strongman's regime.

"By not striking at the regime from the outset, Gadhafi was granted the initiative to embed his forces in urban settings hiding behind human shields in a form of guerrilla warfare," said Barack Seneer, a Middle East expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a British military think tank.

"A no-fly zone is not equipped to contend with guerrilla warfare or with a stalemate that places rebels and loyalists at close proximity with one another," he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said NATO is flying about the same number of combat missions in Libya as when the U.S. was part of the strike mission — so it should be no surprise that they provide only limited help to the Libyan rebels.

"With not having our own people on the ground, without having forward air controllers and observers and so on, and with the pilots trying to go out of their way to avoid civilian casualties, obviously it becomes more difficult to support ground operation," he told reporters in Mosul, in northern Iraq.

Gates also said Gadhafi's forces using more civilian vehicles and clothing to blend in with rebel forces, which makes it even more complicated for NATO's combat pilots to distinguish friend from foe.

Analysts suggest that neither side in Libya can deliver a decisive blow against the other anymore, and say the war has turned into a stalemate that could last for many months.

"The initial military operation achieved its objective of preventing a massacre of rebels and civilians in Benghazi," Chalmers said. "But NATO inherited a much messier situation, and we are now entering a period in which politics and not the military will have to play a leading role."

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NATO: No apology for hitting rebels in tanks

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO acknowledged Friday that its airstrikes had hit rebels using tanks to fight government forces in eastern Libya, but said it would not apologize for the deaths because no one told them the rebels had tanks.

In this image made from television, a dust cloud is seen following the explosion of a missile, outside the strategic oil port of Brega, Libya, Thursday, April 7, 2011. An apparent NATO airstrike slammed into a rebel combat convoy Thursday, killing at least five fighters and sharply boosting anger among anti-government forces after the second bungled mission in a week blamed on the military alliance. (AP Photo/National Transitional Council in Libya via AP Television News)

British Rear Adm. Russell Harding, the deputy commander of the NATO operation, said in the past, only forces loyal to Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi had used heavy armored vehicles.

Harding says the military situation between Libya's eastern coastal towns of Brega and Ajdabiya remains fluid, with the two sides engaged in a series of advances and retreats, making it difficult for pilots to distinguish between them.

NATO jets attacked a rebel convoy between these two towns Thursday, killing at least five fighters and destroying or damaging a number of armored vehicles.

The strikes, including an attack earlier this week, provoked angry denunciations of NATO by the rebels. At the same time, NATO officials have expressed frustration with the Libyan insurgents, who now view the alliance, whose mandate is limited to protecting civilians in Libya, as their proxy air force.

NATO last week took control over the international airstrikes that began March 19 as a U.S.-led mission. The airstrikes thwarted Gadhafi's efforts to crush the rebellion in the North African nation he has ruled for more than four decades, but the rebels remain outnumbered and outgunned and have had difficulty pushing into government-held territory even with air support.

Harding said Friday that NATO jets had conducted 318 sorties and struck 23 targets across Libya in the past 48 hours. They have flown over 1,500 sorties in the eight days since the alliance assumed overall command from a U.S.-led force.

NATO's jets have destroyed Gadhafi's anti-aircraft missile defenses, T-72 tanks and ammunition dumps, Harding said. The attacks also targeted Gadhafi's loyalist forces in the besieged city of Misrata, where rebels continue to hold out.

But Gadhafi's forces still pose a danger for the warplanes. They retain radars and surface-to-air missiles, as well as automatic cannons and shoulder-launched missiles that can hit planes at altitudes up to 5,000 meters (15,000 feet).

"It would appear that two of our strikes yesterday may have resulted in (rebel) deaths," he told reporters in Naples, where the alliance's operational center is located.

"I am not apologizing," Harding said. "The situation on the ground was and remains extremely fluid, and until yesterday we did not have information that (rebel) forces are using tanks."

Over the past week, Gadhafi's forces had switched tactics by leaving their heavy armor behind and using only light trucks armed with heavy machine guns and fast-firing anti-aircraft cannons on the front lines between Brega and Ajdabiya. These have proven very effective in disrupting repeated rebel attempts to push west toward Tripoli, but Gadhafi's forces have not been able to drive the rebels back toward Benghazi or establish a solid front line in that sector.

"These trucks cannot hold ground," Harding said. "When you see their tanks coming up, those are the vehicles that can cause the greatest harm to civilians."

On Thursday, the situation in that sector "was very confusing, vehicles going back and forth," he said.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Previous Related Post: Libyan rebels say NATO airstrikes hit their forces

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Libyan rebels say NATO airstrikes hit their forces

AJDABIYA, Libya (AP) — Rebel fighters claimed NATO airstrikes blasted their forces Thursday in another apparent mistake that sharply escalated anger about coordination with the military alliance in efforts to cripple Libyan forces. At least two rebels were killed and more than a dozen injured, a doctor said.

RETRANSMISSION FOR IMPROVED QUALITY A Libyan rebel, left, looks through his binoculars as his fellow rebel makes a signal as shells explode at a distance on the frontline near Brega, Libya, Wednesday, April 6, 2011. The French foreign minister defended NATO airstrikes in Libya against mounting rebel complaints Wednesday, saying it has become hard to distinguish Moammar Gadhafi's forces from civilians and friendly forces. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

The attack — near the front lines outside the eastern oil port of Brega — would be the second accidental NATO strike against rebel forces in less than a week and brought cries of outrage from fighters struggling against Moammar Gadhafi's larger and more experienced military.

"Down, down with NATO," shouted one fighter as dozens of rebel vehicles raced eastward from the front toward the rebel-held city of Ajbadiya.

In Brussels, a NATO official said the alliance will look into the latest rebel claims but he had no immediate information. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under standing regulations.

NATO last week took control over the international airstrikes that began March 19 as a U.S.-led mission. The airstrikes thwarted Gadhafi's efforts to crush the rebellion in the North African nation he has ruled for more than four decades, but the rebels remain outnumbered and outgunned and have had difficulty pushing into government-held territory even with air support.

A rebel commander, Ayman Abdul-Karim, said he saw airstrikes hit tanks and a rebel convoy, which included a passenger bus carrying fighters toward Brega. He and other rebels described dozens killed or wounded, but a precise casualty toll was not immediately known.

A doctor at Ajbadiya Hospital, Hakim al-Abeidi, said at least two people were killed and 16 injured, some with serious burns. Other rebel leaders said other casualties were left in the field in the chaos to flee the area.

On Saturday, a NATO airstrike killed 13 rebel fighters in eastern Libya. An opposition spokesman described it as an "unfortunate accident" in the shifting battles and pledged support for the international air campaign to weaken Gadhafi's military power.

But rebel discontent with NATO appears to be growing. Opposition commanders have complained in recent days that the airstrikes were coming too slowly and lacking the precision to give the rebels a clear edge. NATO officials say that the pro-Gadhafi troops have blended into civilian areas in efforts to frustrate the alliances bombing runs.

The rebel commander Adbul-Karim said the tops of rebel vehicles were marked with yellow under advice by NATO to identify the opposition forces. The attack occurred about 18 miles (30 kilometers) from Brega, where rebel forces have struggled to break through government lines.

In the Libyan capital, Tripoli, government officials have blamed Britain for attacks on the country's largest oil field, countering rebel claims that Gadhafi forces were behind the attacks that have shut down production.

Libya's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim said late Wednesday that British airstrikes damaged the Sarir oil field, killing three guards and other oil workers. He didn't say why he specified Britain, which is part of a NATO effort.

Two explosions were heard Thursday in Tripoli, but the cause of the blasts was not immediately known.

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Rebels retreat from Libya oil port under attack

BREGA, Libya (AP) — Rebels retreated Wednesday from the key Libyan oil port of Ras Lanouf along the coastal road leading to the capital Tripoli after they came under heavy shelling from ground forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi.

NATO planes flew over the zone where the heaviest fighting was under way and an Associated Press reporter at the scene heard explosions, indicating a new wave of airstrikes against Gadhafi's forces.

In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, heavy smoke rises over the Tajoura area, some 30 km east of Tripoli, Libya, after an airstrike on Tuesday March 29, 2011. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia) NO SALES

NATO has intervened in the Libyan conflict with near daily airstrikes to weaken the regime's superior military power vis-a-vis the poorly trained and badly equipped ragtag rebel army.

A rebel near the front lines told the AP that the opposition fighters withdrew from Ras Lanouf rather than fighting the regime forces who were closing in on them.

U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Clint Gebke, a spokesman for the NATO operation aboard the USS Mount Whitney, said he could not confirm any specific strikes but said that western aircraft were engaging pro-Gadhafi forces.

"The joint task force is still supporting the civilians on the ground via sorties," he said in a telephone interview.

With the help of NATO airstrikes earlier in the week, rebel who control the eastern half of Libya rapidly advanced westward on the main coastal highway that leads to Gadhafi's stronghold in the capital. The got within 60 miles of the city of Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and a bastion of support for the longtime leader with a major military base.

At that point, they came under heavy bombardments by Gadhafi's ground forces, who outgun the rebels in every way — in numbers, equipment and training.

Over the past two days, the poorly organized rebel forces have been in full retreat back eastward on the coastal highway, with no help from NATO airstrikes that they had pleaded for until around midday Wednesday.

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Libyan rebels close on key Gadhafi stronghold

BIN JAWWAD, Libya (AP) — Rebel forces on Monday fought their way to the doorstep of Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, a key government stronghold guarding the road to the capital Tripoli.

The lightning rebel advance of the past few days, backed by powerful international airstrikes, has restored to the opposition all the territory they lost over the past week and brought them to within 60 miles (100 miles) of this bastion of Gadhafi's power in the center of the country.

Libyan rebels jubilate on the front line outside of Bin Jawaad, 150 km east of Sirte, central Libya, Monday, March 28 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

"Sirte will not be easy to take," said Gen. Hamdi Hassi, a rebel commander at the small town of Bin Jawwad, just 18 miles (30 kilometers) from the front. "Now because of NATO strikes on (the government's) heavy weapons, we're almost fighting with the same weapons, only we have Grad rockets now and they don't."

Russia, however, has criticized the international strikes against government forces that made the rebel advance possible, saying they have overstepped their U.N. mandate to protect civilians by taking sides in a civil war.

The U.S. launched six Tomahawk missiles Sunday and early Monday from navy positions in the Mediterranean Sea, two defense officials said Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not yet authorized to release the information.

That brought to 199 the number of the long-range cruise missiles fired by international forces in the week-old military intervention, one official said.

International air forces flew 110 missions late Sunday and early Monday — 75 of them strike missions. Targets included Gadhafi ammunition stores, air defenses and ground forces, including vehicles and tanks, a third official said.

Libya's rebels have recovered hundreds of miles (kilometers) of flat, uninhabited territory at record speeds after Gadhafi's forces were forced to pull back by the strikes that began March 19.

In a symbolic diplomatic victory for the opposition, the tiny state of Qatar recognized Libya's rebels as the legitimate representatives of the country — the first Arab state to do so.

Hassi said there was fighting now just outside the small hamlet of Nawfaliyah, 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Sirte and scouting parties had found the road ahead to be heavily mined.

He added that the current rebel strategy was to combine military assault with an attempt to win over some of the local tribes loyal to Gadhafi over to their side.

"There's Gadhafi and then there's circles around him of supporters, each circle is slowly peeling off and disappearing," Hassi said. "If they rise up it would make our job easier."

Witnesses in Sirte reported Monday there had been air strikes the night before and again early in the morning, but the town was quiet, and dozens of fighters loyal to Gadhafi could be seen roaming the streets.

Moving quickly westward, the advance retraced their steps in the first rebel march toward the capital that was stopped March 5 by Gadhafi's superior weaponry. But this time, the world's most powerful air forces have eased the way by pounding the government's military assets for the past week.

The east of the country shook off nearly 42 years of Gadhafi's rule in a series of popular demonstrations starting in mid-February and inspired by similar successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Gadhafi's forces crushed similar uprising in the west of the country.

Sirte is strategically located about halfway between the rebel-held east and the Gadhafi-controlled west along the Mediterranean coast. It is a center of support for Gadhafi and is expected to be difficult for rebels to take.

West of Sirte is the embattled city of Misrata, the sole place in rebel hands in the country's west. Residents reported fighting between rebels and Gadhafi loyalists who fired from tanks on residential areas.

Rida al-Montasser, of the media committee of Misrata, said that nine young men were killed and 23 others wounded when Gadhafi brigades shelled their position in the northwestern part of the city on Sunday night. He also said that the port was bombed.

Turkey's Anatolia new agency said a Turkish civilian ferry carrying 15 medics, three ambulances and medical equipment was heading for Misrata to help treat some 1,300 people injured in attacks there.

Meanwhile, international airstrikes have continued against Libya, including the southern town of Sebha, reported the state news agency. The area remains strongly loyal to Gadhafi and is a major transit point for ethnic Tuareg fighters from Mali and Niger fighting for the government.

JANA said the strikes destroyed a number of houses, though past attacks on Sebha, 385 miles (620 kilometers) south of Tripoli, targeted the airport and the flow of foreign fighters reinforcing the regime.

Britain's Defense Ministry announced Monday that its Tornado aircraft had attacked ammunition bunkers around Sebha in the southern desert in the early hours of the morning.

After retaking two key oil complexes along the coastal highway in the past two days, rebels promised to quickly restart Libya's stalled oil exports, prompting a slight drop in the soaring price of crude oil to around $105 a barrel.

The U.N. Security Council authorized the operation to protect Libyan civilians after Gadhafi launched attacks against the protesters who demanded that he step down. The airstrikes have crippled Gadhafi's forces, allowing rebels to advance less than two weeks after they had seemed at the brink of defeat.

The assault on Sirte, where most civilians are believed to support Gadhafi, however, potentially represents an expansion of the international mission to being more directly involved with regime change.

"This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces," Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in the capital, Tripoli. "They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war."

His position found some support in Russia, where Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said strikes on Gadhafi's forces would amount to interference in what he called Libya's civil war, and thus would breach the U.N. Security Council resolution that envisaged a no-fly zone only to protect civilians.

The tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, however, has formally recognized the rebels as the legitimate representatives of the country and promised to help them sell their crude oil on the international market.

Qatar has been well ahead of other Arab countries in embracing the rebels and is also participating in the U.N.-mandated no-fly zone over Libya.

Turkey, meanwhile, has confirmed that even as rebel forces advance on Sirte it has been working with the government and the opposition to set up a cease-fire.

"We are one of the very few countries that are speaking to both sides," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Selcuk Unal said, without confirming whether Turkey had offered to act as mediator.

Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also told reporters his country will take over the running of the airport in Benghazi to facilitate the transport of humanitarian aid to Libya. He did not say when, however.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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