Qaddafi Stops Rebel Advance
Washington Post reports:
Moammar Gaddafi's loyalists escalated a lethal counterattack on Sunday, heightening assaults on rebel-held cities near his western stronghold of Tripoli and pushing back opposition forces attempting to advance toward the capital.
Gaddafi's expanding campaign - including a ground assault on Misurata, the nation's third-largest city - appeared to dash rebel hopes of putting a swift end to his 41-year-long rule.
Though the opposition has claimed most of the eastern half of the country since Feb. 17, the display of the government's superior firepower had loyalists celebrating in the streets of Tripoli, with state television showing them unfurling the green flag of Gaddafi's Libya and firing machine guns into the air.
The intensity of the government assault suggested the nation was plunging deeper into a bloody civil war, with a regrouping Gaddafi lashing out at his enemies. On Sunday, a ragtag band of rebels boldly advanced from this desert oil town 410 miles east of the capital toward Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, with their sights on Tripoli further down the road. But they returned in the late morning, shaken by what they described as a merciless surprise attack by government forces with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy artillery.
Retreating rebels said they took significant casualties in the assault, interrupting a string of recent victories in the opposition's westward push toward Tripoli.
"We got smashed. They are much armed," said Jamal el-Guradi, a U.S.-born baker of Libyan descent who came to fight with rebel forces. Fighters seeking to unseat Gaddafi managed to recover, however, and held regime forces to an apparent standstill by day's end.
In the still largely government-controlled west, meanwhile, Gaddafi's forces appeared to be sending a message to rebel-held towns that resistance would be met with ruthless force. In Zawiyah, a city 27 miles west of Tripoli that is vital to Libya's oil industry, witnesses said dozens had been killed and hundreds wounded in a bloody siege Saturday. Witness reports said government forces were again bombarding the city on Sunday, and Internet, electricity and phone lines appeared to be down.
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