Libyan rebels advance on key oil city (Brega)

[pampango]

Source: CBC

Libya's opposition forces have advanced once again to the strategic oil town of Brega thanks to four days of airstrikes by NATO, a rebel officer said Saturday. Col. Hamid Hassy said that following scattered clashes with the government forces of Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, the rebels had reached the outskirts of the key oil facility in Brega, a town that has already changed hands half a dozen times since fighting began in early March.

The NATO bombardments, which began last month after the United Nations authorized military action to defend civilians caught in Libya's civil war, have kept rebels from being outright defeated on the battlefield by Gadhafi's better trained and equipped forces, but until now they have not been enough to turn the tide.

While opposition fighters were advancing on Brega in the east, the rebels' struggled to hold their positions in the city of Misrata, their only major foothold in the country's west.

Gunfire and artillery bombardments rocked Misrata overnight, with the city's main hospital saying at least five people died and 31 were wounded in the shelling.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/04/16/libya-brega-misrata.html?ref=rss

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It does seem like Brega and some other towns in north central Libya change hands over and over.

[bluedigger]

1. It's turned into a vicious fight. n/t

[Bosonic]

2. Pseudo-stalemate

It seems unlikely the rebel forces will progress beyond Sirte without significant NATO escalation, and Gaddafi's forces seem unlikely to get beyond Ajdabiya without a significant NATO de-escalation. So it's reduced to a Mad-Max scenario of rusty vehicles barreling up and down dusty roads, oh what a photogenic war.