Anger at Libyan forces’ Tunisian incursion

Libyan forces in more than a dozen military vehicles and armed with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers have crossed the border with Tunisia and been involved in clashes in a frontier town.

Tunisia’s government was outraged and demanded Libya halt all incursions into its territory.

There were different accounts from witnesses of exactly what happened in the Tunisian town of Dhuheiba, about three miles from the border, but several said Tunisian troops captured and disarmed some of the loyalists of Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi and drove others out of town.

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Reports claim three Tunisians were hurt as Libyan forces drove into the town and fired indiscriminately.

The Tunisian government expressed “extreme indignation” over the violation of its territory. The Tunisian news agency TAP said Tunisian forces fired in the air, but did not clash with Libyan troops.

The Dhuheiba border crossing has been a flashpoint in recent days. The crossing has been changing hands repeatedly between rebels and regime forces.

Media crews reported two bodies of Libyan troops near the crossing and were told rebels were chasing two dozen Libyan military vehicles on the Libyan side in hopes of securing a supply corridor to the mountain area.

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The Nafusa mountain range in western Libya, close to Tunisia, has emerged as a pocket of resistance to Gaddafi forces. The mountain area is home to members of Libya’s ethnic Berber community who have complained of systematic discrimination by the Libyan government.

Along with the besieged western city of Misrata, the Nafusa range is one of the major centres of opposition to Gaddafi in the western half of Libya.

Thousands of Libyans from the Nafusa mountain communities have fled to Dhuheiba and other Tunisian border towns in recent weeks, as rebels and government forces battled for control of the border crossing.