Rebels flee as Gaddafi forces pound oil port

Hundreds of Libyan rebels fled the key oil port of Ras Lanuf after coming under a barrage of rockets and tank shells from government forces.

Libyan state TV said that opposition forces had also been driven out of Sidra, an oil port west of Ras Lanuf, as pro-Gaddafi troops moved to regain ground that had been seized by rebels.

News that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has strengthened his control of the country came as Western nations struggled to find a way to stop him.

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France became the first country to recognise the rebel leadership as the country’s legitimate government yesterday, while the United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said she would travel to Egypt and Tunisia next week and planned to meet opposition leaders.

But there was no concrete sign of Western moves toward military assistance such as the no-fly zone that rebels have repeatedly asked for following a series of air strikes.

Reports coming out of the war-torn country painted an increasingly bleak picture.

A rebel official in the town of Ajdabiya inside opposition territory said Col Gaddafi’s troops and tanks were battling the insurgents at the western entrance to Ras Lanuf and using gunboats to fire on the rebels from the sea.

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“These are tough battles,” said Akram al-Zwei, a member of the post-uprising town committee. “We are fighting against four battalions heavily equipped with air power, tanks, missiles, everything.”

Taking back Ras Lanuf would be a major victory for Col Gaddafi, re-establishing his power over a badly damaged but important oil facility and pushing his zone of control further along the main coastal road running from rebel territory to the capital, Tripoli.

A rebel governing council spokesman said Col Gaddafi’s air force, army and navy had bombarded Ras Lanuf, targeting the main hospital, mosques and civilian areas.

“The regime that has lost legitimacy is practising a scorched earth policy,” spokesman Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga said.

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“We have requested for all steps to be taken to protect the Libyan people. We believe the UN can do that.”

Elsewhere, the rebel hospital in the eastern town of Brega said four people had been killed in the fighting, 35 were wounded and another 65 were missing.

In the west, Col Gaddafi’s forces claimed they had recaptured Zawiyah, the city closest to the capital that had fallen into opposition hands.

The international Red Cross said dozens of civilians had been wounded or killed in recent days in battles between the army and the opposition.

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“We need help from the international community, but we just hear promises,” said Mohammed Ali Al Zuaiee, a 48-year-old rebel fighter. “They are doing nothing.”

The main hospital in Ras Lanuf was hit by artillery or an air strike and the rebels were pulling their staff out and evacuating patients to the towns of Brega and Ajdabiya, said Gebril Hewada, a doctor on the opposition’s health committee in Benghazi.

Nato has said it is planning a no-fly zone but would only act with the approval of the United Nations Security Council, which diplomats say would hinge on the backing of African and Arab countries.

Britain and France have backed the rebels’ calls for a no-fly zone, but the Obama administration has expressed deep reservations about involvement in another conflict in the Middle East.

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Nato said it had started round-the-clock surveillance of the air space over Libya, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said a meeting of EU foreign ministers would discuss how to isolate the regime.

Germany said it had frozen Col Gaddafi’s assets.

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