NATO Strikes Forces Near Misrata Amid Reports of Rebel Deaths
April 28, 2011, 11:02 AM EDTBy Patrick Donahue
(See EXTRA and MET for more on Middle East unrest.)
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- NATO said its warplanes attacked combat vehicles near the besieged Libyan port city of Misrata yesterday, following reports that one of its strikes killed rebel fighters battling Muammar Qaddafi’s forces in the area.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization can’t confirm the strike yesterday 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of the port hit rebels, an alliance official said. Twelve rebels were killed in a strike carried out as part of the alliance’s air campaign, the Associated Press reported, citing a doctor in the city.
NATO “deeply regrets” any loss of life, said the official by telephone from Brussels who declined to be identified in accordance with alliance policy. A deadly strike on rebel forces would be the third of its kind since the campaign began.
The attack occurred during intensified fighting around the port city, Libya’s third-largest, as Qaddafi forces continue to lay siege to the only city in country’s west held by rebels. NATO is stepping up a six-week-old air campaign over Libya and selecting targets closer to Qaddafi in a bid to break a military stalemate between the opposition and loyalist forces.
Libyan rebels are struggling to sustain an insurrection aimed at toppling Qaddafi’s 42-year rule after more than two months of fighting. Gene Cretz, the U.S. ambassador to Libya now based in Washington, said yesterday that officials had seen estimates of as many as 30,000 people killed in the conflict.
Misrata Evacuation
The Geneva-based International Organization of Migration said a chartered vessel, the Red Star One, left Misrata with 935 foreign nationals and Libyans yesterday after “heavy shelling” by Qaddafi forces this week delayed its rescue operation. Most of those taken on the ship were migrant workers from Niger as well as 30 Libyans in need of medical attention, the IOM said today in a statement posted on its website.
The NATO official said the vehicles struck yesterday had been targeting an area where alliance jets had “broken up” a group of loyalist forces the day before. The official said none of its attacks were carried out on buildings in or near Misrata. The AP cited the doctor, identified as Hassan Malitan, as saying the rebels were struck at a position where they had been sheltering in a building three miles east of the port.
The military alliance has boosted its firepower in the last week with 12 additional Italian ground-attack warplanes and armed U.S. Predator drones. U.K. Defense Secretary Liam Fox said yesterday that this week’s strike that flattened part of Qaddafi’s main compound in Tripoli was meant to “increase the psychological pressure” on the Libyan dictator.
Oil Rises
Crude for June delivery gained 25 cents to $113.01 a barrel at 9:38 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, oil climbed by as much as 94 cents to $113.70, the highest price since Sept. 22, 2008. Prices have risen 36 percent in the past year.
Libya has Africa’s biggest proven oil reserves. The country accounted for 8.8 percent of global light, low-sulfur crude supply in 2010, according to JBC Energy GmbH, a Vienna-based consultant. Libyan oil output is down 75 percent as fighting between rebels and government troops forced producers such as Marathon Oil Corp. to evacuate workers.
--Editors: Leon Mangasarian, Ben Holland.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
