Street fighting has been raging in besieged Misrata Libyan rebels ‘seize border post’
Street fighting has been raging in besieged Misrata Libyan rebels have overrun a post on the Tunisian border in a rare advance against government troops in the west of the country, reports say.
The reported capture of the Wazin crossing follows fighting in the area.
Tunisia’s state-run TAP news agency says 13 Libyan soldiers, including a general, turned themselves over to the Tunisian military at the border.
The rebels control much of eastern Libya. Fighting is continuing in the besieged western city of Misrata.
AFP news agency says the rebels seized the Wazin post after up to 200 pro-Gaddafi soldiers fled to Tunisia on Thursday.
“We see rebels who control the border crossing,” one Tunisian witness told Reuters news agency by phone.
There were similar reports from other news agencies – but no independent confirmation.
Rebel leader Shaban Abu Sitta told AP news agency that the crossing had been taken after three days of intense battles with government soldiers outside the nearby town of Nalut.
He said the rebels had seized cars and weapons from the government troops, and destroyed 30 trucks.
There are no further details about the soldiers reported to have handed themselves over at the border.
Meanwhile, Libya’s Jana state TV has reported that Nato forces have captured a Libyan oil tanker, in what it described as “a barbaric piracy operation”.
Nato is enforcing a naval blockade of Libya, as part of the international effort to prevent arms and mercenaries from entering the country.
Thursday morning also saw further fighting in Misrata. An opposition spokesman said mortar fire had killed three rebels there.
On Wednesday, two journalists died in a mortar attack in the city – Tim Hetherington, a British-American filmmaker and Chris Hondros, an American photographer.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said he was “very sad” about the deaths, but that warfare always involved casualties.
The BBC’s Orla Guerin in Misrata said the hospital there had received more than 100 casualties on Wednesday, the vast majority of them civilians. The hospital said five civilians had been killed.
One doctor at Misrata hospital told our correspondent that he and his colleagues were exhausted and asked where the international community was.
Inspired by uprisings in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, Libyan rebels have been fighting Col Gaddafi’s forces since February.
The rebels, based in Benghazi, hold much of the east, while Col Gaddafi remains in control of Tripoli and most of the west.
The rebel Transitional National Council rejected the government’s latest offer of a ceasefire on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the council, Abdul Hafeez Ghoga, said Col Gaddafi wanted a ceasefire because his forces were being destroyed by Nato air strikes.
France, Italy and the UK have said they are sending military officers to Benghazi to advise the rebels, who have been unable to capitalise on pro-Gaddafi losses.
On Thursday, the government foreign ministry warned there would be “consequences” to such a move.
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