Libya’s rebels remain enthusiastic but poorly trained Libya rebels resume Brega attack
Libya’s rebels remain enthusiastic but poorly trained Libyan rebels are advancing towards the oil town of Brega, reports say, in renewed fighting in eastern Libya.
Rebels pushed towards Brega on Monday in an attempt to win back territory lost to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
A BBC correspondent near Brega says they appear to be more buoyant and organised than recently.
A senior Libyan envoy is in Europe and is expected to hold talks in Turkey and Malta on Monday.
Libya’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, has told the Greek prime minister that Col Gaddafi wants the fighting to end.
Mr Obeidi arrived in Athens on Sunday and is reportedly keen to open a dialogue with the international community.
The BBC’s Wyre Davies, who is on the road close to Brega, says the sounds of gunfire and weaponry can be heard from the front line a few kilometres away.
“Gaddafi and his sons have to leave before any diplomatic negotiations can take place”
Shamseddin Abdulmelah Rebel spokesman
Rebel fighters are charging towards the front line, our correspondent says, clearly bolstered by the presence in their ranks of more and more soldiers who have defected from Col Gaddafi’s army.
But the rebels remain poorly trained and equipped, he adds, and even if they manage to take Brega there still seems no realistic prospect of an advance on Tripoli, the Libyan capital.
One rebel told the AFP news agency Nato planes had been heard over the area during the night, but no air strikes had been carried out.
As their forces advanced on Brega, a rebel spokesman said they would not accept any transition in Libya that saw power transfer to any of Col Gaddafi’s sons.
He said the rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) was resolutely opposed to the possibility, reported by the New York Times, that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and his brother Saadi Gaddafi could emerge as interim leaders if their father stepped aside. The report could not be verified by the BBC.
“This is completely rejected by the council,” TNC spokesman Shamseddin Abdulmelah said in Benghazi, the rebels’ eastern stronghold.
“Gaddafi and his sons have to leave before any diplomatic negotiations can take place.”
The latest rebel advance came as Mr Obeidi was due to arrive in Turkey on the latest leg of a diplomatic visit to Europe.
On Sunday he told the Greek prime minister that Col Gaddafi wants the fighting to end.
“From the Libyan envoy’s comments it appears that the regime is seeking a solution,” Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas told reporters.
Muhammad was peppered with shrapnel when a rocket exploded near him in Misrata Mr Droutsas said Athens had stressed the international community’s call for Libya to comply with UN Security Council resolution 1973, which authorised military intervention to protect civilians.
The Libyan envoy would be going on to Turkey on Monday and then Malta to continue his diplomatic contacts, he added.
However, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said at a Rome news conference on Monday that Mr Obeidi had made no mention that Col Gaddafi intended to step aside.
In that context “it is not possible to accept such a point of view”, Mr Frattini said.
Speaking alongside a key Libyan rebel figure, Mr Frattini said the TNC now represented “the new Libya”.
Meanwhile, evidence has emerged of the scale of the fighting in Misrata, the only city in the west still controlled by the rebels.
A Turkish humanitarian ship carrying more than 250 injured people from Misrata arrived in Benghazi on Sunday.
Misrata has been under siege by forces loyal to Col Gaddafi for several weeks.
Doctors on board the ship, Ankara, said many people had extremely serious injuries.
The BBC’s Jon Leyne, who went on board, said one man had lost part of his leg in an explosion as he was taking his wife to hospital for treatment. A 13-year-old boy had been shot by a sniper. And a 12-year-old had been peppered with shrapnel when a rocket exploded as he and his brother had been on their way to the market.
Our correspondent says everyone had stories of the ever worsening conditions in Misrata. They told him that much of the city had no water or electricity and no-one was safe from shelling or sniper-fire.
“It is very, very bad. In my street, Gaddafi bombed us,” Ibrahim al-Aradi, who had wounds in his groin, told Reuters. “We have no water, no electricity. We don’t have medicine. There are snipers everywhere.”
Doctors on board say medical care conditions Misrata were inadequate, and that more than 200 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded. One unconfirmed report said 160 could have died in the past week.
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