Pro-Gaddafi forces launch fresh assualts on Ajdabiya and Brega after being repelled by rebels a day earlier.
Last Modified: 03 Mar 2011 14:29 GMT
The struggle between forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, and anti-government protesters has intensified amid reports of renewed attacks on rebel-held towns in the country's east. Witnesses in Ajdabiya and the oil port town of Brega reported fresh fighting on Thursday, a day after clashes between anti- and pro-Gaddafi forces left at least 10 civilians dead, residents said. "Around two hours ago, warplanes dropped a bomb in the area between the oil company and the residential area," Fattah al-Moghrabi, director of supplies for Brega hospital, told the AFP news agency. "As far as I know, there was no casualties," he said. The reported strike in Brega comes in the wake of a counter-offensive launched by Gaddafi, aimed at taking back lost territory in the country's east. About 300 men loyal to the Libyan leader attacked Brega, some 500km east of the capital, Tripoli, on Wednesday.
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A short while later, an air force bomber encircled the town, firing a missile without causing any casualties. The warplane struck a beach near where the two sides were fighting at a university campus. Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, who was about 70 metres from the missile when it hit, said the opposition managed to repel the strike - maintaining control of the town they seized a week ago. Located between Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte - still under government control - and the opposition-held eastern port of Benghazi, Brega also sits near ethnic fault lines between tribes loyal to Gaddafi and eastern groups opposed to him.
"They tried to take Brega this morning, but they failed," Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the February 17th Coalition, an anti-government group, told the Reuters news agency. Government forces were also reported to be battling to regain control of rebel-held towns close to Tripoli, trying to create a buffer zone around what is still Gaddafi's seat of power.
Meanwhile on Thursday, government officials from the Netherlands are trying to win the release of three Dutch marines in Libya.
They were captured on Sunday by forces loyal to Gaddafi after they landed in the coastal city of Sirte. They were trying to rescue two Europeans who have since been handed over to the Dutch embassy in Tripoli. Venezuelan mediation As the standoff continues, Al Jazeera has learned that Gaddafi has accepted an offer from Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, to mediate the crisis. Gaddafi spoke to Chavez and agreed in principle to a mediation plan - an offer that the Arab League has welcomed.
As the turmoil continues, Libya's opposition
prepares for battle [Al Jazeera]
"Chavez spoke on the phone to Gaddafi and proposed to him the idea of forming a commission for peace in Libya and Gaddafi is said to have approved that idea," Al Jazeera's Dima Khatib, reporting from the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, said. Sources later told our correspondent that Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelan’s foreign minister, discussed the offer with Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League. Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from the eastern opposition-held city of Benghazi, said anti-Gaddafi activists in the city were unlikely to agree to any kind of mediation. "All along they have been saying that the only mediation they will consider is to find an exit strategy for Gaddafi and his family and all his close aides," she said. "They said there is no time anymore for dialogue, there is no way that they will do any kind of settlement. They say there is a complete lack of trust at the moment. Mediation, unless it's with an exit strategy, will be quite difficult.." 'No fly' zone As international concern grows over the violence in Libya, the Arab League has announced it could impose a "no fly" zoneover the country if the fighting continues.
Moussa said on Wednesday that the action could be taken in co-ordination with the African Union. The Arab League has suspended the membership of Gaddafi's government in protest against its crackdown on protesters.
"The situation in Libya is sorrowful and it is not correct that we accept it or live with it," Moussa said at the opening session of a ministers' meeting in Cairo. "The Arab League will not stand with its hands tied while the blood of the brotherly Libyan people is spilt."
However, Robert Gates, the US secretary of defence, has warned of the gravity of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya. "A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defences, that's the way you do a no fly zone," he said.
"Then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down.
"But that’s the way it starts and it requires ... more airplanes than you would find on a single aircraft carrier. So it is a big operation in a big country."
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