Qaddafi Forces Take Strategic Town as Rebels Flee
Rebel forces near the main checkpoint at the refinery in Ras Lanuf in Libya, a town that the forces quit under a sustained government assault. More Photos »
By ANTHONY SHADID
RAS LANUF, Libya — Forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi retook a strategic oil town and pressed toward the country’s largest refinery Friday, as once-energetic rebel lines began to crumble before an onslaught of air strikes and tank and artillery fire that sent fighters in a chaotic retreat down the Mediterranean coast.
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Moises Saman for The New York Times
Supporters of the Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi rallied in Tripoli on Thursday. They met with Colonel Qaddafi’s son. More Photos »
Plumes of smoke turned clear skies a somber gray after warplanes struck a fuel storage tank at the refinery and fighters lit a dozen tires on fire in a futile attempt to provide cover. Rumors tumbled through dwindling crowds of fighters that spies were among them, and volleys of anti-aircraft fire seemed aimed more at flagging spirits than bringing down the warplanes that sent rebels scurrying for cover behind sand dunes.
The setbacks were the clearest sign yet of the momentum Colonel Qaddafi’s government has seized as it tries to crush the greatest challenge to his nearly 42 years of bizarre rule. Through fear and intimidation, he has silenced protests in Tripoli, ravaged a town near the capital called Zawiyah that brought the revolt to his doorstep and brought himself within striking distance of a series of strategic oil towns in eastern Libya.
“We’re exposed here,” said Yusuf Ibrahim, a lieutenant colonel from Benghazi who deserted to the rebel ranks and tried to coordinate defenses. “There are no trenches. Do you see any trenches here? This is a wide open space. Anything is possible here.”
“This isn’t an army,” he added.
A rebel force that had numbered in the thousands on Thursday had dwindled to the hundreds by the time they gathered in the early afternoon Friday for prayers a little ways from an ammunition dump. Blasts of rocket and tank fire in the distance provided a menacing backdrop to the cadence of prayers. After about 20 minutes, the fighters jumped to their feet, with some shouting “God is great” and “the blood of martyrs will not be shed in vain” as they ran off.
For the first time on Friday, rebel fighters tried to prevent photographers from taking pictures of their positions in what seemed an unusual display of anxiety about Colonel Qaddafi’s intentions. They complained, as they have for days, of their lack of firepower and support from outside the country.
“We withdrew yesterday. Why?” Ahmed Tajjouri, a 25-year-old fighter, said on Friday. “Because we don’t have air defenses, defenses against the sea. What are we going to do if the warplanes come? Tanks are coming, too, and we don’t have those either.”
Reporters were unable to advance beyond the Ras Lanuf refinery toward the town itself. Some rebels said they had set up an outpost closer to the town, about six miles west of here, in what has been to some extent a see-saw conflict.
“The line is going to go back and forth,” said Mohammed Fawzi, a 24-year-old rebel fighter. It was not immediately clear if government troops would seek to press the advantage they clearly gained on Thursday by deploying greater force on wider fronts.
In Tripoli on Friday, government security officers fired tear gas canisters and shots in the air in a pre-emptive move to quash protests by worshipers at a mosque in the rebellious neighborhood of Tajura.
The government also led journalists on a tightly scripted visit to Zawiyah, the city less than 20 miles from Tripoli that the Colonel’s forces seem finally to have wrested from rebel control. On Friday, the thousands of protesters who were seen cheering in the city’s central Martyrs Square last month had been replaced by hundreds of people in green bandanas cheering for Colonel Qaddafi.
Despite the government’s efforts to sanitize the scene, signs of the conflict were everywhere. Apartment buildings around the square were severely damaged, and many of the lamp posts were bent over. The tower atop the mosque had been knocked off, the speaker used for the call to prayer was dangling by a wire. The mosque itself was in ruins, and there was a pile of crumpled up burned out cars and trucks piled behind the rubble.
The 20 graves of fallen rebels had been plowed over. The Qaddafi forces had painted over the rebel flags on the sides of buildings, then hung green and white streamers over several buildings to cover up the repainting or other damage.
In the east, usually ebullient rebels acknowledged withdrawing from Ras Lanuf on Thursday, even as the fledgling opposition leadership in Benghazi scored diplomatic gains with France’s recognition of it as the legitimate government and senior American officials’ promise to talk with its leaders.
Western nations took new steps to isolate the Qaddafi government, but the measures stopped well short of any sort of military intervention and seemed unlikely to be able to reverse the momentum. Nevertheless, President Obama said Friday that the United States and its allies were “tightening the noose” on Colonel Qaddafi and that he is “more and more isolated internationally.”
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