Govt plane bombs Libyan oil town
Government forces seeking to dislodge rebels from Libya's strategically important coast struck at an oil town yesterday amid quickening efforts to prevent more humanitarian suffering and a mass refugee exodus.
The United Nations said more than one million people fleeing Libya and inside the country needed humanitarian aid, and conditions in rebel-held Misrata town were particularly worrying following attacks on it by forces loyal to Gaddafi.
Offering a potential olive branch to rebels seeking to end Gaddafi's long rule, one of his associates appealed to opposition chiefs for dialogue, in a sign the aging autocrat may be ready to compromise with the unprecedented revolt.
The offer, rapidly dismissed by rebels, coincided with a renewed publicity drive by Gaddafi that warned European nations to the north of the Mediterranean that if he fell "you will have immigration, thousands of people from Libya will invade Europe."
Meanwhile, the United Nations and the European Union are dispatching fact-finding missions to the north African nation, where reports by residents of attacks on civilians by security forces have triggered a war crimes probe and provoked global outrage.
In an interview with the France 24 television station, Gaddafi said Libya was an important partner for the West in containing al Qaeda and illegal migrants trying to reach Europe,
"There are millions of blacks who could come to the Mediterranean to cross to France and Italy, and Libya plays a role in security in the Mediterranean," he said.
A warplane launched an air strike on the eastern outskirts of the rebel-held oil terminal town of Ras Lanuf 600 km east of the capital Tripoli yesterday, witnesses said.
"There was an aircraft, it fired two rockets there were no deaths," Mokhtar Dobrug, a rebel fighter who witnessed the strike, told Reuters. The attack took place at one of two checkpoints in the city.
Witnesses said government forces advanced on the rebel-held oil port of Ras Lanuf in a counter-attack that forced residents to flee and rebels to hide their weapons in the desert.
In Ras Lanuf, one angry man told rebels to go home, arguing that they were bringing fighting closer to oil terminals.
Another complained of the rebels' inexperience, as one opposition fighter lay on his back and fired an automatic weapon gun at a government warplane flying overhead.
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