RAS LANUF, Libya — Having halted a westward push by rebel fighters, forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi began a counteroffensive on Tuesday, marching eastward to the outskirts of this critical oil town, as an array of diplomats gathered in London to shape a political vision of a post-Qaddafi era.
“We meet now in London at a turning point,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the conference, urging continued military action by the NATO-led coalition in Libya along with “political and diplomatic pressure that makes clear to Qaddafi that he must go.”
On the ground, though, there was no indication that Colonel Qaddafi was prepared even for the cease-fire demanded by the United Nations resolution 12 days ago authorizing the military operation in Libya. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain opened the conference by saying the Libyan leader was still in “flagrant breach” of the resolution.
Under withering allied airstrikes loyalist forces had fallen back in the last week from the gates of Benghazi hundreds of miles to the east to the strategically crucial town of Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown, which had been depicted as recently as Sunday as the next rebel objective. Surt is critical for both sides since it blocks the rebels’ advance to western Libya and the capital of Tripoli.
But on Monday they struck back, sending volleys of missile and tank fire that pushed the battle lines farther east. A chaotic cavalcade of hundreds of trucks and cars carrying fighters streamed late Monday afternoon into Bin Jawwad, a battered ghost town about 80 miles east of Surt. Bin Jawwad has switched hands three times in the last month, and it did not seem that loyalist forces planned to recapture it as much as simply push the rebels farther eastward.
By Tuesday, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces were on the outskirts of Ras Lanuf, an oil town to the east of Bin Jawwad, and had started shelling it, primarily from the sea, rebel commanders said. There was no obvious sign by midday Tuesday of the coalition airstrikes that had facilitated the rebel advance so far. In theory, Western military commanders say they send their warplanes into action only to protect civilians, and there was some cloud cover in the area of Ras Lanuf on Tuesday. American warplanes were active late Monday in the western port city of Misurata, firing on three Libyan vessels to prevent them from shelling merchant shipping, news reports said, quoting a statement from the United States Navy Sixth Fleet.
One of the Libyan vessels, a patrol boat identified as the Vittoria, was forced to beach. Two smaller vessels were hit and one sank, the Navy said, in what seemed to be the first known episode of attacks at sea since Western forces began the military campaign in Libya 10 days ago. There were news reports that pro-Qaddafi forces spearheaded by tanks had again pushed into Misurata on Tuesday, hours before the London conference began.
In many places, the situation seemed confused. Government minders escorted foreign journalists on Tuesday to the town of Mizda, 125 miles south of Tripoli, to show them residents living in a tented encampment after allied airstrikes allegedly forced them from their homes. But when the busload of journalists and officials approached, five armed men emerged from the encampment and began firing over the visitors’ heads. Their identity was not immediately known, but the episode suggested limits on the government’s writ — and unpredictability as the country faces unparalleled uprising and warfare.
However, Qaddafi government officials did manage — after failing on several previous occasions, sometimes comically — to present in Mizda the first apparently credible evidence of civilian casualties as a result of the Western airstrikes. They showed foreign journalists a damaged and bloodied hospital room where a gap in the wall and missile fragments on the floor suggested the crash of a Katyusha rocket. A Western attack on a nearby weapons depot apparently sent rockets exploding into the sky, with one striking the hospital and destroying the room, which contained five beds.
Both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Cameron said on Tuesday that the first allied airstrikes 10 days ago had prevented what she called “a potential massacre” in Benghazi, with loyalist troops massed just to the south of the city. Mr. Cameron accused Colonel Qaddafi of deploying snipers who left their victims to bleed to death on the streets of Misurata.
Britain, which joined France to press for the United Nations resolution, invited Mahmoud Jibril, a member of the rebel Libyan National Council, to London during Tuesday’s gathering, although he was not formally invited to the conference. France has already recognized the rebels as the sole representative of the Libyan people. In a document released on Tuesday, the rebels pledged to hold free elections to insure a transition to democracy if Colonel Qaddafi falls.
“We meet now in London at a turning point,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the conference, urging continued military action by the NATO-led coalition in Libya along with “political and diplomatic pressure that makes clear to Qaddafi that he must go.”
On the ground, though, there was no indication that Colonel Qaddafi was prepared even for the cease-fire demanded by the United Nations resolution 12 days ago authorizing the military operation in Libya. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain opened the conference by saying the Libyan leader was still in “flagrant breach” of the resolution.
Under withering allied airstrikes loyalist forces had fallen back in the last week from the gates of Benghazi hundreds of miles to the east to the strategically crucial town of Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown, which had been depicted as recently as Sunday as the next rebel objective. Surt is critical for both sides since it blocks the rebels’ advance to western Libya and the capital of Tripoli.
But on Monday they struck back, sending volleys of missile and tank fire that pushed the battle lines farther east. A chaotic cavalcade of hundreds of trucks and cars carrying fighters streamed late Monday afternoon into Bin Jawwad, a battered ghost town about 80 miles east of Surt. Bin Jawwad has switched hands three times in the last month, and it did not seem that loyalist forces planned to recapture it as much as simply push the rebels farther eastward.
By Tuesday, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces were on the outskirts of Ras Lanuf, an oil town to the east of Bin Jawwad, and had started shelling it, primarily from the sea, rebel commanders said. There was no obvious sign by midday Tuesday of the coalition airstrikes that had facilitated the rebel advance so far. In theory, Western military commanders say they send their warplanes into action only to protect civilians, and there was some cloud cover in the area of Ras Lanuf on Tuesday. American warplanes were active late Monday in the western port city of Misurata, firing on three Libyan vessels to prevent them from shelling merchant shipping, news reports said, quoting a statement from the United States Navy Sixth Fleet.
One of the Libyan vessels, a patrol boat identified as the Vittoria, was forced to beach. Two smaller vessels were hit and one sank, the Navy said, in what seemed to be the first known episode of attacks at sea since Western forces began the military campaign in Libya 10 days ago. There were news reports that pro-Qaddafi forces spearheaded by tanks had again pushed into Misurata on Tuesday, hours before the London conference began.
In many places, the situation seemed confused. Government minders escorted foreign journalists on Tuesday to the town of Mizda, 125 miles south of Tripoli, to show them residents living in a tented encampment after allied airstrikes allegedly forced them from their homes. But when the busload of journalists and officials approached, five armed men emerged from the encampment and began firing over the visitors’ heads. Their identity was not immediately known, but the episode suggested limits on the government’s writ — and unpredictability as the country faces unparalleled uprising and warfare.
However, Qaddafi government officials did manage — after failing on several previous occasions, sometimes comically — to present in Mizda the first apparently credible evidence of civilian casualties as a result of the Western airstrikes. They showed foreign journalists a damaged and bloodied hospital room where a gap in the wall and missile fragments on the floor suggested the crash of a Katyusha rocket. A Western attack on a nearby weapons depot apparently sent rockets exploding into the sky, with one striking the hospital and destroying the room, which contained five beds.
Both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Cameron said on Tuesday that the first allied airstrikes 10 days ago had prevented what she called “a potential massacre” in Benghazi, with loyalist troops massed just to the south of the city. Mr. Cameron accused Colonel Qaddafi of deploying snipers who left their victims to bleed to death on the streets of Misurata.
Britain, which joined France to press for the United Nations resolution, invited Mahmoud Jibril, a member of the rebel Libyan National Council, to London during Tuesday’s gathering, although he was not formally invited to the conference. France has already recognized the rebels as the sole representative of the Libyan people. In a document released on Tuesday, the rebels pledged to hold free elections to insure a transition to democracy if Colonel Qaddafi falls.
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