Libya Wages Counterattack Against Rebels on 3 FrontsBy KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: February 28, 2011BENGHAZI, Libya — Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces struck back on three fronts on Monday, using fighter jets, special forces units and regular army troops in an escalation of hostilities that brought Libya closer to civil war.
The attacks by the colonel’s troops on an oil refinery in central Libya and on cities on either side of the country unsettled rebel leaders — who earlier had claimed they were close to liberating the country —
and showed that despite defections by the military, the government still possessed powerful assets, including fighter pilots willing to bomb Libyan cities. An international campaign to force Colonel Qaddafi from power gathered pace on Monday as the Obama administration announced it had seized $30 billion in Libyan assets and the European Union adopted an arms embargo and other sanctions.
As the Pentagon began repositioning Navy warships to support a possible military intervention, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton bluntly told the Libyan leader to surrender power “now, without further violence or delay.”
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In Zawiyah, a city with important oil resources just 30 miles from the capital, residents said about 200 heavily armed soldiers in uniforms approached from the east early in the morning. At around 4:30 in the afternoon they tried to break through makeshift barricades at the city gates but came under heavy fire and were rebuffed, said the residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals against themselves or their families.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/world/africa/01unrest.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss________________________________________________________
(Ed. to add graphic.)