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Suspect in Libya may have played Benghazi role, congressman says

March 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

121001044959 libya consulate outside story top Suspect in Libya may have played Benghazi role, congressman says

(PhatzNewsRoom / CNN Security) — The United States has “pretty good indications” that a man now held in may have been involved in the on the U.S. in Benghazi, the chairman of the said Sunday.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNN last week that the had been able to question a man identified by sources as Faraj al-Shibli. But it was still not clear what role, if any, al-Shibli may have played in the that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. A source briefed by Western said al-Shibli had recently returned to Libya from Pakistan.

“We’re not sure yet,” U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, told CNN’s . But. Rogers added, “we have pretty good indications that he is, at least, highly suspected of being involved.”

Al-Shibli – whose name also has been spelled “Chalabi” – is the only known suspect in custody in connection with the Benghazi attack. A 26-year-old , Ali Ani al Harzi, was held in Tunis for several weeks in connection with the assault on the compound after being extradited from Turkey but was released by a judge in January because of .

The U.S. official said it was “advantageous” that al-Shibli was in Libyan custody, but there is not enough evidence to make an arrest at this point. Rogers told State of the Union that arresting al-Shibli could make it harder to question him.

“The problem with criminalizing this is that it lengthens the process. It slows everything down, and the key to these things is getting information soon,” he said.

But the Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat, Maryland Rep. C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger, said other charged with crimes in U.S. courts had continued cooperating even after being read their rights.

“We, as a nation, are the strongest country in the world,” he told CNN. “And we need to show that we can try people and convict people in our country and protect witnesses and everything else. So, there are a lot of issues here, but it’s got to depend on a case-by-case basis.”

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After fatwas, security upped for Egypt opposition

February 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

After fatwas, security upped for Egypt opposition
(Photo: Thomas Hartwell, AP)

Story Highlights

Egypt’s top prosecutor launches investigation into one of the clerics
Several opposition leaders’ homes will watched for their protection
National Salvation Front issued statement condemning assassination of politician

CAIRO (AP) — Security was beefed up around Egypt’s opposition leaders on Thursday after several hardline issued religious edicts calling for them to be killed, raising fears of similar to that of a Tunisian gunned down a day earlier in Tunisia.

Egypt’s prime minister and the , which forms the backbone of the country’s leadership, condemned the edicts, or fatwas, and the top prosecutor launched an investigation against one of the clerics.

The slaying in Tunisia of opposition leader Chokri Belaid and the fatwas in Egypt have sparked an uproar in both countries and raised concerns that religious hard-liners could turn to killings to silence critics of Islamists’ rule.

In Egypt, hard-liners have reacted with fury to a wave of protests against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi since late January, which have turned into as police cracked down on the . Aides to Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood officials have depicted the protesters as thugs and criminals and have accused of condoning or even fueling violence in an attempt to undermine Morsi.

Using similar rhetoric, several well-known hardline clerics the past week declared that under for those who cause chaos or try to overthrow the ruler apply to the protesters and opposition leaders — including death, crucifixion or amputations of limbs.

Another cleric suggested that violent sexual assaults of women protesters in Tahrir Square the past week were justified, calling them “either Crusaders (Christians) … or widows who have no one to rein them in.”

After criticism of government silence over the fatwas calling for killing opposition leaders, Prime Minister Hesham Kandil on Thursday warned that such edicts could lead to “sedition and disturbance.”

“These extremist edicts are not related to Islam,” Kandil said, according to the state news agency. “The Egyptian people had a glorious January Revolution for the sake of establishing a democratic society where dialogue prevails, not killing.”

A day earlier, Egypt’s most prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the National Salvation Front, had said on his Twitter account, “Regime silent as another fatwa gives license to kill opposition in the name of Islam.”

Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Hani Abdel Latif said security authorities will increase patrols in residential areas where opposition leaders live in. He told the website of the state Al-Ahram newspaper that security officials have “put into consideration” the assassination of the Tunisia’s Belaid.

A security official said ElBaradei’s home and several other leaders’ homes will be put under observation for their protection. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The fatwas came after the wave of unrest that swept over Egypt since late January, when protests against Morsi turned to clashes in many places, and demonstrators have cut off roads and held strikes outside government buildings. Dozens were killed in police crackdowns on protesters. Last Friday, protests outside Morsi’s presidential palace turned into riots as police rained tear gas and fired birdshots at demonstrators throwing stones and firebombs, and then set fire to protesters’ tents. In a sign of the increasing mayhem, police stopped a man trying to drive a bulldozer at the palace’s gates the next day.

One well-known TV cleric, Mahmoud Shaaban, said the leaders of the National Salvation Front are “setting Egypt on fire to gain power.”

“The verdict against them under God’s law is death,” he said on a talk show on a TV station connected to the ultraconservative Salafi movement.

He mentioned ElBaradei and another Front leader, Hamdeen Sabahi, saying “they have repeatedly spoken about toppling Morsi.” Later in the program, he clarified that the government should carry out the verdict, not private citizens.

Separately, another hardline cleric Wagdi Ghoneim issued a video statement pleading with Morsi to crack down heavily on those outside his palace. He said “the verdict under Shariah for those who seek corruption on earth is to be fought, or crucified, or have their arms or legs cut off or be exiled from earth.”

“Strike with an iron fist. Otherwise, the country will be lost at your hand and they’ll say it is your fault. They’ll say Islam doesn’t know how to rule and that it’s the Islamists who wrecked the country,” he said. He said that if Morsi’s government doesn’t act, private citizens will.

“We will kill the criminals, the thugs, the thieves and those who give them money and those who help them with words. No mercy with them,” Ghoneim shouted.

Top prosecutor Talaat Ibrahim ordered an investigation into Shaaban for his fatwa.

Another television sheik seemed to justify sexual assaults on women in Tahrir. Activists have reported at least 19 such attacks on Jan. 25, the day Egyptians marked their second anniversary of 2011 revolution that ousted longtime president Hosni Mubarak. In many cases, mobs swarm a woman protester, stripping her and sexually assaulting her.

On his TV show on Wednesday, cleric Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah derided opposition statements that attacking women was “a red line” that must not be crossed. “Does that apply to these naked women?” he said. “Most of them are Crusaders … or widows with no one to rein them in” and ensure they remain modest.

“They are going there to get raped,” he screamed. He spoke of their curly hair, saying “these are devils named women … they speak with no femininity, no morals, no fear … Learn from Muslim women, be Muslims.”

Abdullah, known as Abu Islam, is current on trial on charges of religion contempt after he told a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that he tore a copy of the Bible and next time he will urinate on it. The protest took place on Sept. 11 after an anti-Islam film made in the US caused uproar.

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood also condemned the fatwas calling killing the opposition by saying, “the Muslim Brotherhood denounce calls that permit bloodshed and incites for killing.”

Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world’s premier Islamic institution, feared that such edicts “open the doors of sedition and chaos of killing and bloodshed.” In a statement, it called upon Egyptians to “to adhere to the position of the Islamic law, which emphasizes the sanctity of blood.”

The National Salvation Front issued a statement condemning the assassination of the Tunisian politician.

The assassination “sounds danger alarms from Tunisia to Cairo, and warns of the cancerous growth of terrorist groups cloaked by religion and carrying out a plot to liquidate the opposition morally and physically.”

Egyptians have witnessed series of assassinations of top statesmen and writers on hands of Islamic extremists after religious edicts were issued against them back in 1990s during a surge of Islamist extremist insurgency.

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Two suspects held in Istanbul over killing of U.S. envoy: TV

October 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

78e0184cdaef35e1bd761d1cd07d7b57 Two suspects held in Istanbul over killing of U.S. envoy: TV

(Reuters) – Two suspects in the killing of U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens have been detained at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, Turkish Kanal D reported on its website on Friday.

It said Turkish police held the two suspects, described as citizens, as they tried to enter the country with fake passports.

Police in Istanbul declined comment on the report.

Stevens was one of four Americans who died when Islamist gunmen stormed the Benghazi consulate last month.

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by )

(Reuters) – U.S. officials in Washington denied repeated requests from Americans in Libya for more security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi before last month’s attack that killed four Americans there, two said on Tuesday.

U.S. Representatives and Jason Chaffetz wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding details of the requests for more security – which they said were made amid numerous attacks on in Libya in recent months.

They said the House of Representatives Oversight and will hold an October 10 hearing on the leading up to the Benghazi attack on September 11.

Clinton responded later on Tuesday with a letter to the lawmakers saying the State Department would collaborate with the committee.

Issa heads the panel and Chaffetz oversees its subcommittee on national security, homeland defense, and .

“Multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for in Benghazi,” Issa and Chaffetz wrote.

“The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington,” the Republican lawmakers said. Their letter did not include details of the reported requests.

“I appreciate that you and your committee are deeply interested in finding out what happened leading up to and during the attacks in Benghazi, and are looking for ways to prevent it from happening again,” Clinton said in her letter. “I share that commitment.”

She did not address any of the lawmakers’ claims in her response.

Clinton said the State Department had named an “accountability review board” to investigate the Benghazi attack, headed by retired U.S. diplomat Thomas Pickering.

She said the panel would share its findings with lawmakers and urged them to hold off on drawing conclusions until they had seen the State Department’s report.

She said the board would start its work this week and other members would include Michael Mullen, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Separately, four U.S. officials have told Reuters they were aware that in the months before the Benghazi attack, some U.S. personnel in Libya had sent complaints to the State Department expressing concern about security at U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, particularly the compound where Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.

Two of those officials said their understanding was that the department did not act on the complaints before the attack in Benghazi.

‘DELIBERATE AND ORGANIZED’

Debate over whether the Obama administration was caught unprepared by an assault by militant groups has become U.S. election-year fodder.

Republicans have criticized initial statements by administration officials, including U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who suggested the attacks were precipitated by anger over an anti-Muslim online video.

Last Friday the top U.S. intelligence authority declared it believed this was a “deliberate and organized terrorist attack.”

Stevens died of smoke inhalation when he was trapped alone inside the burning building in Benghazi, Libya’s second city and the seat of last year’s February 17 revolt against Muammar Gaddafi.

Another diplomat, Sean Smith, also died at the compound. Two U.S. security personnel were killed later when another U.S. to which some personnel retreated came under mortar attack.

Issa and Chaffetz said the violence was the “latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months leading up to” the assault.

Unarmed Libyan guards employed at the U.S. Benghazi mission were warned by their family members to quit their jobs in the weeks before the assault, “because there were rumors in the community of an impending attack,” they said.

Back in April, two Libyans who had been fired from a contractor providing unarmed security for the Benghazi mission threw a small homemade bomb over the mission’s fence, the letter said. No one was hurt and the suspects were arrested but not prosecuted.

Stevens had also faced threats in Tripoli, according to the letter.

It said he often took an early-morning run around the Libyan capital with his security detail, but that in June, “a posting on a pro-Gaddafi Facebook page trumpeted these runs and directed a threat against Ambassador Stevens along with a stock photo of him.”

Stevens stopped the runs for about a week, but then resumed them, the letter added.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Warren Strobel and Xavier Briand)

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Rebels say Gaddafi troops abandon towns in west

August 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

77169fc2d074e53f47789078a70c7c93 Rebels say Gaddafi troops abandon towns in west

(Reuters) – launched an assault on Wednesday to drive forces loyal to out of a strategic city on Tripoli’s outskirts, and said that encircled Gaddafi troops had abandoned two towns further west.

After 41 years of supreme power, the 69-year-old Gaddafi is looking isolated, with reinvigorated closing in on the capital from the west and south and cutting off its road links to the outside.

The rebels, aided by a NATO bombing campaign, have transformed the battle in the last few days by seizing most of the city of Zawiyah on Tripoli’s western outskirts, as well as a town to the south, cutting Tripoli’s two main supply routes.

A rebel spokesman said remnants of Gaddafi’s forces further west — now cut off from the capital and effectively encircled following the capture of Zawiyah — had abandoned two towns and were retreating toward the Tunisian border.

“Gaddafi’s forces this morning withdrew from the towns of Tiji and Badr because they felt surrounded from all sides,” said the spokesman, named Abdulrahman, by telephone from Zintan, a in the .

“The have now entered Tiji and Badr. The (Gaddafi) retreated to Zuwarah and Jameel, near the Tunisian border. I think they will surrender soon because roads to Tripoli are closed,” he added.

The account could not be independently confirmed. Gaddafi’s government has played down the rebel advances of the past week.

ZAWIYAH ASSAULT

In Zawiyah, which controls the main highway linking Tripoli to the Tunisian border, Gaddafi forces have retained control of an and have harassed the rebels with shelling and snipers on rooftops of .

“There are some snipers inside the refinery facility. We control the gates of the refinery. We will be launching an operation to try to take control of it shortly,” said rebel fighter Abdulkarim Kashaba.

Around noon, as an exchange of fire could be heard from the area, he said the operation was under way.

Under a bridge rebels loaded large-caliber ammunition into a car and headed toward the refinery for the assault. Other rebels could be seen speeding in that direction.

Gaddafi’s green flags could be seen still flying from a refinery building and an electrical pylon. The rest of the city now flies the red, black and green flag used by the rebels.

The Zawiyah refinery has been one of the few sources of fuel for Gaddafi’s troops and residents of the capital. The rebel commander in charge of the attack on it, Osama al-Arusee, said the pipeline linking it with Tripoli was severed on Tuesday. He said ten refinery workers were trapped by Gaddafi’s troops who would not let them leave.

Elsewhere in the city, Zawiyah appeared quiet on Wednesday and under rebel control. The city was largely deserted and shops were boarded up, with clusters of rebel fighters in the streets.

Medical workers at a hospital on the outskirts said three people had been killed and 35 injured on Tuesday, most of them civilians, as Gaddafi’s troops shelled the town and snipers fired from its rooftops.

TALKS SHUNNED

An increasingly confident rebel leadership has dismissed reports that it was holding secret talks with representatives of the Libyan leader in neighboring Tunisia.

’s rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) denied negotiating with Gaddafi to resolve the conflict. Sources have said the two sides were meeting in Tunisia this week where a U.N. envoy has also arrived for talks.

“The NTC would like to affirm that there are no negotiations either direct or indirect with the Gaddafi regime or with the special envoy of the United Nations,” said NTC leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil. Gaddafi must step down and leave Libya, he said.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Gaddafi’s forces had been thrown back onto the defensive.

“I think the sense is that Gaddafi’s days are numbered.”

At a news conference for Libyan journalists broadcast by state television, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim dismissed reports that Gaddafi’s forces were on the run but acknowledged fighting in several locations rebels say they have captured.

“Some foreign politicians have said this regime’s days are finished and it has weeks left,” he said. They have been saying this for six months and we are still here.”

(Additional reporting by Robert Birsel in Benghazi, Libya, Phil Stewart in Washington, Missy Ryan in Tripoli and Hamed Ould Ahmed in Algiers; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Libyan rebels move on western town

July 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

c438f6abfb4b580a6ac80a71895ad9b6 Libyan rebels move on western town

() – in Libya’s launched an offensive on Thursday against ’s troops, one day after Britain granted diplomatic recognition to the opposition.

With prospects of a negotiated settlement fading, both sides appear to be preparing for the five-month-old war to grind on into the Muslim in August.

“We have started attacking Ghezaia with rockets and tanks,” rebel spokesman Mohammed Maylud said.

Ghezaia is a town near the border which has been in government hands since the conflict began.

At a checkpoint outside the nearby rebel-held town of , they sounded optimistic as the fighting began.

“We are confident we can beat Gaddafi now, we have captured more weapons from the army, mostly AK-47s,” said Mohammed Ahmed, 20, a market trader turned fighter.

Basim Ahmed, a fighter coming back from the front, said rebels had taken control of parts of three villages and many government troops had fled, but this was not possible to verify.

As sustained bombardments could be heard in the distance, an ambulance raced to Nalut hospital. A rebel with a wound to the shoulder was brought into the emergency room, where he lay semi-conscious.

Minutes later a commotion could be heard in the parking lot. A government soldier who had been captured was led to a hospital bed a few feet away from the rebel. He was missing a hand and was barefoot.

The soldier, who gave his name as Hassan, told Reuters that the army was losing the will to fight.

“We don’t want to keep fighting. Everybody is against us.” he said, speaking from his hospital cot.

Blood seeped through the bandage bound around the stump of his missing hand but a rebel nonetheless tried to interrogate him, asking him his unit and where he was from.

Eight wounded lay in the hospital in total — four rebels and four Gaddafi soldiers. Six other Gaddafi soldiers had been taken prisoner, witnesses said.

Rebels have taken large swathes of Libya since rising up to end Gaddafi’s 41-year rule.

They hold much of the Western Mountains range, northeast Libya including their stronghold Benghazi, and the western city of Misrata.

Yet they remain poorly armed and are often disorganized. Despite the backing of NATO air strikes, they have failed to reach the capital and appear unlikely to do so soon.

Ghezaia is of local strategic importance, a base from which government troops attack rebels in the mountains, but if it fell this would not bring the opposition nearer to Tripoli.

Gaddafi has scoffed at the rebels’ efforts to end his rule and has weathered a rebel advance and NATO air raids on his forces and military infrastructure.

A recent flurry of diplomatic activity has yielded little, with the rebels insisting Gaddafi step down as a first step and his government saying his role is non-negotiable.

United Nations envoy Abdel Elah al-Khatib visited both sides this week with plans for a ceasefire and a power-sharing government that excludes Gaddafi, but won no visible result.

Asked about Khatib’s proposal, rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said: “We were surprised the day before yesterday that we are taking 10 steps back… and he says to share power with Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. This is laughable.”

Gaddafi also appeared defiant on Wednesday, urging rebels to lay down their arms or suffer an ugly death.

“We all lead this battle, until victory, until martyrdom,” he said in a message aired at a pro-Gaddafi rally in Zaltan, 140 km (90 miles) west of the capital Tripoli.

RECOGNISING THE REBELS

Ramping up pressure on Gaddafi, Britain expelled his diplomats from London on Wednesday and invited the rebel National Transitional Council to replace them.

Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that Britain now recognized the rebels as Libya’s legitimate government and unblocked 91 million pounds ($149 million) in frozen assets.

The United States and about 30 other nations have also recognized the opposition, potentially freeing up billions of dollars in frozen funds.

Gaddafi’s government said the British move was “illegal and irresponsible” and a “stain on the forehead of Britain.”

“We will go to the International Court of Justice and the national courts in Britain, and we will use their justice,” said Libya’s deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr in Berlin, Rania El Gamal in Benghazi, Hamid Oul Ahmed in Algiers, Missy Ryan and Lutfi Abu Aun in Tripoli, Mussab Al Khairallah in Misrata; Writing by Lin Noueihed and Richard Meares; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

($1 = 0.612 British Pounds)

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Libya government destroys Misrata fuel tanks: rebels

May 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

5ee281c449e8ac2b21e4c9a9bc588701 Libya government destroys Misrata fuel tanks: rebels

(Reuters) – bombed large fuel storage tanks in the contested western city of Misrata, destroying the tanks and sparking a huge fire, said on Saturday.

The came as fired by forces loyal to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi fell in Tunisia in an of fighting near the border between Libyan soldiers and anti-Gaddafi rebels.

Misrata is the last remaining city in the west under rebel control. The port city has been under siege for more than two months and has witnessed some of the war’s fiercest fighting between and rebels.

Rebels gave varying accounts of the Misrata bombardment but said the overnight attack, which hit fuel used for export as well as domestic consumption, came as a blow to their ability to withstand the siege.

“Four (fuel) tanks were totally destroyed and huge fire erupted which spread now to the other four. We cannot extinguish it because we do not have the right tools,” rebel spokesman told Reuters.

“Now the city will face a major problem. Those were the only sources of fuel for the city. These tanks could have kept the city for three months with enough fuel,” he said by telephone.

Hassan said government forces used small planes normally used to spray pesticides for the overnight attack in Qasr Ahmed. He later told Al-Jazeera television that three helicopters bearing Red Crescent insignia conducted the attack.

Another rebel spokesman, who gave his name as Abdelsalam, said a government helicopter conducted a reconnaissance mission over the port and two hours later at around midnight local time government forces fired rockets that hit three fuel tanks belonging to the Brega Oil Company.

Rebels notified NATO about the planes before the attack but there was no response, Hassan said. Government forces last month flew at least one helicopter reconnaissance mission over Misrata, according to rebels.

BORDER FIGHTING

Schools were evacuated and residents scurried for safety in the frontier town of Dehiba, which has been hit repeatedly by stray shells in recent weeks as the Libyan rivals fight for control of a nearby border crossing.

Fighting has intensified in Libya’s region as Gaddafi loyalists and rebels, backed by NATO bombing, reached stalemate on other fronts in the civil war.

Billows of dust and rock marked where at least 13 projectiles struck on the Tunisian side.

The crackle of small arms fire as well as larger weapons could also be heard about 4 km (2.5 miles) inside Libya, a Reuters witness on the border said.

The battle is for control of the Dehiba-Wazzin border crossing, which gives the rebels a road from the outside world into strongholds in the where they are fighting to end Gaddafi’s rule of more than four decades.

“We are very afraid. The missiles are falling right around us, we don’t know what to do,” said Tunisian Mohammed Naguez, a resident of Dehiba. “Our children are afraid. The Tunisian authorities have to stop this.”

Although the rebels hold the Dehiba-Wazzin border point, Gaddafi’s forces are in charge of a far bigger one to the north.

Most of the people in the Western Mountains belong to the Berber ethnic group and are distinct from other Libyans.

They rose up two months ago and say towns such as Zintan and Yafran are under repeated bombardment from Gaddafi’s forces, running short of food, water and medicine.

Last week, fighting at the Tunisian border crossed into Dehiba itself, drawing furious protests to Libya from Tunisia’s authorities. Tunisian soldiers set up blockades and patrolled inside Dehiba on Saturday after the fighting resumed.

More than 30,000 Libyan refugees have crossed from the Western Mountains into Tunisia, where many are being hosted by local families.

Sympathy for the Libyan rebels tends to be strong in Tunisia, where the ousting of an authoritarian president in January after 23 years in power sparked uprisings in Libya and across the Arab world.

Western powers are trying to go beyond the NATO bombing campaign against troops loyal to Gaddafi to find other ways of helping an uprising that prised eastern Libya from his control but then stalled.

(Reporting by Joseph Nasr in Berlin and Matt Robinson and Tarek Amara in Dehiba Mariam Karouny in Beirut; Writing by Matthew Bigg and Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Peter Millership)

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Pro-Gaddafi forces clash with Tunisian military

April 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

0ffe670c3610eb763d93e3f84bf96b6b Pro Gaddafi forces clash with Tunisian military

() – Forces loyal to leader crossed into neighboring Tunisia and fought a gun battle with troops in a on Friday as Libya’s conflict spilled beyond its borders.

Pro-Gaddafi forces fired shells into the town of Dehiba, damaging buildings and injuring at least one resident, and a group of them drove into the town in a truck in pursuit of anti-Gaddafi .

The Libyan government troops were chasing rebels from the restive Western Mountains region of Libya who fled into Tunisia in the past few days after Gaddafi forces overran the border post the rebels had earlier seized.

While the Libyan forces were battling in Dehiba, the rebels who are fighting to end more than four decades of Gaddafi’s rule announced they had seized back the border post.

Rebels seized the post a week ago, as it controls the only road link which their comrades in Libya’s Western Mountains have with the outside world, making them rely otherwise on rough tracks for supplies of food, fuel and medicine.

After weeks of advances and retreats by rebel and along the , fighting has settled into a pattern of and .

The fighting for the crossing between Dehiba in Tunisia and Wazin on the Libyan side was typical of the fluid and confused conflict, which broke out in mid-February.

Some of Gaddafi’s soldiers were killed and wounded in the fighting in Dehiba. Two residents told Reuters that shells had fallen on the town from pro-Gaddafi positions across the border in Libya.

“Rounds from the bombardment are falling on houses…. A Tunisian woman was injured,” one of the residents, called Ali, told Reuters by telephone.

He said later the fighting and shelling had stopped. “The Tunisian army is combing the town. We have no idea about the fate of Gaddafi’s forces there because the Tunisian army closed the gates to the town and nobody is allowed to enter.”

SYMPATHIES

Tunisia toppled its own , Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, in a revolution earlier this year that triggered turmoil through the Middle East and many Tunisians are sympathetic to the rebels fighting Gaddafi’s forces.

A Libyan rebel said anti-Gaddafi fighters had retaken control of the border crossing near Dehiba. The main crossing into Libya, two hours’ drive to the north, remains firmly under Libyan government control.

“Right here at this point I’m looking at the new (rebel) flag flying up there at the border. The rebels have got control of it, the freedom fighters. We’re just in the process of opening it up,” rebel Akram el Muradi said by telephone.

Tunisia’s government late on Thursday issued a statement condemning incursions by Libyan forces after shells fired by Gaddafi loyalists fell into the desert near the border.

Friday’s clashes marked the first time that Libyan government ground forces had crossed the border and entered a Tunisian town.

Residents said that a crowd of local people gathered in Dehiba on Friday morning to try to prevent pro-Gaddafi forces from entering the town.

They said the Tunisian military fired in the air to disperse them, and urged the demonstrators to seek shelter from the shelling inside their homes.

Inside Libya, NATO air strikes hit Gaddafi loyalists attacking the rebel held town of Zintan, a rebel spokesman said from there.

In the rebels’ stronghold, Benghazi, a doctor said shelling by Gaddafi’s forces in the besieged city of Misrata killed 12 people on Thursday, including two women. He said the dead were victims of rocket and mortar fire.

Oil traders in Asia said on Friday a tanker with the first major oil shipment from rebel-held east Libya is expected to arrive in China next week.

The Liberia-registered tanker Equator, reported to be carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude, left the rebel-held east Libyan port of Marsa el Hariga three weeks ago, carrying fuel exports vital to financing the uprising against Gaddafi.

The buyer of the cargo was not clear as trading house Vitol, which is managing the shipment, has not commented on its Libyan transactions. Traders said that finding a buyer was not straightforward due to concerns over legal complications related to the ownership of oil and international sanctions.

(Additional reporting by Tarek Amara and Matthew Tostevin in Tunis and Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Randy Fabi in Singapore and Judy Hua in Beijin; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

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