Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Battle for Az Zawiyah




Government opponents in the Libyan city of Az Zawiyah have repulsed an attempt by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi to retake the city closest to the capital, Tripoli, in six hours of fighting overnight, witnesses say.
Tursday's claims follow reports that government forces attacked the city from the west and the east, and that fighter jets bombed an ammunition depot in the eastern city of Ajdabiya.

There was no word on casualties in Az Zawiyah, which is 50km west of  Tripoli.
"We will not give up Az Zawiyah at any price,'' one witness said on Tuesday.

"We know it is significant strategically. They will fight to get it, but we will not give up. We managed to defeat them because our spirits are high and their spirits are zero."

The rebels, who include army forces who defected from the government, are armed with tanks, machine guns and anti-aircraft guns.

They fought back pro-Gaddafi troops using the same weapons who attacked from six directions.

Battle for Az Zawiyah
A resident of Az Zawiyah told the Associated Press news agency by telephone on Monday that fighting started in the evening and intensified after dusk when troops loyal to Gaddafi attacked the city.

"We were able to repulse the attack. We damaged a tank with an RPG. The mercenaries fled after that," said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

He said Gaddafi called the city's influential tribal leader, Mohammed al-Maktouf, and warned him that if the rebels did not leave the main square by early Tuesday, they would be hit by fighter jets.

"We are expecting a major battle," the resident said, adding that the rebels killed eight soldiers and mercenaries on Monday.



Another resident of Az Zawiyah said he heard gunfire well into the night on the outskirts of town.

AP said its reporter saw a large, pro-Gaddafi force massed on the western edge of Az Zawiyah.

There were also about a dozen armoured vehicles along with tanks and jeeps mounted with anti-aircraft guns.
An officer said the troops were from the elite Khamis Brigade, named after one of Gaddafi's sons who commands it and said by US diplomats to be the best-equipped force in Libya.

Gaddafi, Libya's ruler of 41 years, has already lost control of the eastern half of the country since protests demanding his resignation began two weeks ago. He still holds Tripoli.


22 comments:

  1. I would have to say that the Obama Administration is handling the riots across the Islamic Arc better than the George HW Bush Team managed the Shiite revolt in Iraq.

    Leaving those Iraqi to be gassed, by Saddam, after urging the uprising.

    At least Team Obama has not encouraged the rebels, just to watch them die, subsequently, at the hands of the despot.

    Hope the rebels win.
    With or without US air cover.

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  2. The Big E and a gator freighter are moving into the Gulf of Sidra. Just waiting on a decision from the Commander in Chief. I got the blues, holding my breath.

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  3. In a six-hour battle, rebels armed with tanks, anti aircraft guns and automatic weapons repelled an overnight attack by government troops using the same weapons in the town of Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, the Associated Press reported.

    Call it the Libyan battle of Bull Run (or First Manassas, depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line you hail from).

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  4. desert rat said...
    Murdering the native born Jewish souls, so that non-Jewish adults can be allocated living space to facilitate their migration to Israel, that is a core part of Israeli State population policy.

    There is only so much room, in Israel, those Europeon migrants need the space, more than the Israeli need native born Jewish souls.

    Many of those 1.5 million Jewish souls that have been murdered in Israel, since 1948, cleansed so that Russians could migrate, south to the Mediterranean shoreline.

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  5. I think my computer may be on the fritz.

    I ain't been seein' any comments all day long.

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  6. Everyone is sick of Lybia and Wisconsin.

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  7. For days, military leaders in Benghazi have said they are preparing to assemble a force of thousands to conduct a final assault on Tripoli; some of the officials have even promised to send planes to bomb Colonel Qaddafi’s fortified compound, Bab al-Aziziya.

    But there are few signs that a plan has materialized, though military leaders maintain they are simply waiting for the right time. A fighter pilot sympathetic to the antigovernment protesters, Mohammed Miftah Dinali, expressed some frustration that he had not yet been called on to aid the rebel effort.

    “My friends and I are willing to go and do an airstrike on Qaddafi’s compound,” he said. “I cannot just sit and watch this happen.”


    Airstrikes From West

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  8. Get your pot from the market then head on over to the 'Head Shop' in Pike Place to get your pipe.

    Sweet!

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  9. I can't even get a bottle of beer at the market.

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  10. I had to come back now. I was dismayed to hear Joan Collins says her 'very tight dress' was the reason she had to be rushed to hospital after she almost passed out at an Oscars party while wearing her extremely figure-hugging purple plunge-necked confection.

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  11. The purple plunge-necked confection was on my mind while I was hospitalized after big night filled with alcohol and naked prostitutes with my friend Charlie She Han.

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  12. I for one am not sick of Libya and the rest of the arab on arab, moslem on moslem blood letting...

    It's quite interesting watching different flavors of anti-semitic Jew haters murder and kill one another.

    It could get interesting now...

    Saudi Arabia is sending 30 tanks to Bahrain...

    70% shia, ruled by 30% sunni...

    Persian influenced Jew hating Islamists against Wahabbi influenced Jew hating Arabs...

    Moslem murdering moslem...

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  13. then after the blood letting?

    Nice big juicy contracts for new cars, rail, buildings, infrastructure, consumer goods and more..

    The more the Islamists destroy? The more of their devalued Dollars they can spend!

    Instead of Drill Baby Drill?

    It should be

    BURN BABY BURN!!!!!

    I wonder what the effect on an Iranian dirty bomb given to some shias (shits as I call them) to take out the Arabian Oil terminal?

    Shits verses the sun... Shittes verse the Sunnis..

    Same as the Hamas verses the Fatah...

    Shits verses the Suns...

    Tell ya what, it was quite the kick out of learning about the 1st Palestinian Air Force Squadron.

    It seems those smart Palestinian Hamas Shits decided to fling several Fatah Suns of the tallest building in Gaza..

    We give them an "A" for effort but the flight trajectory of said "fatah" pilot/flyers was poor, usually no more than a lateral distance of 9 feet...

    Hardly impressive...

    But the Land?

    Colorful to say the least...

    Yep The Ishmael's...

    Better than the Simpsons, and quite frankly?

    gives you more of a sense of adventure...

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  14. Popular revolts across the resource-rich Middle East and North Africa may transform the management of windfall oil wealth, potentially denting national balance sheets, boosting inflation and disturbing world markets.

    ...

    Vast oil wealth is a key factor underpinning credit ratings in resource-rich but politically vulnerable countries which have high youth unemployment.

    ...

    For global capital markets, a sudden change in a country's wealth management policy or the environment surrounding their investment could trigger a sell-off and volatility.


    Fund Re-think

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  15. Louisiana Sweet was selling for $118.00/bbl this afternoon.

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  16. And, Jeff Flake, and his flaky comrade somethingorother Sullivan are attacking ethanol, relentlessly.

    Sometimes you really Don't need a program to know the "players."

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  17. Over at The Four Seasons, Tim Gunn was offering opinions on the gowns, and that's exactly what he did with Marisa Tomei, who always makes me a chubby. (I especially like her hoolie.)

    I'm mortified that that my good friend Charlie She Han yelled across the bar:

    "Hang on Tim, she's got no feckin venetian blinds!"

    I'm mortified that this is the case in this situation. While Charlie is on my mind, Can anyone reccomend a decent book about football hooliganism in the UK? I have started reading a few but they have all been very poor quality and barely literate. I was at the St Etienne Man U game in France where I met George Bush who said it was a kick-ass event, but a sizeable force of chanting Man U suddenly appeared and we were worried about being with our own kicked-asses.

    We were huddled in the VIP and my good friend Barack Obama was with Michelle ( who never gives me a chubby), however Barack managed a collective bow and we all had some chicken wings, completely by coincidence, by a delicious, buttery leek and potato soup for my lunch today.


    I have to go now.

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  18. …I forgot to mention my most pleasure at the invitation to join Michelle and Barack for dining purposes. It was all that it means to be most wonderful with organicness from Michelle's organic garden which is favored in her bosom.

    We had Curried mussels... no doubt using locally-grown spices from the famous Pant-y-Gyrdl spice plantations in Passcagoula? I presume the lemon comes from the citrus groves of Rhosllanerchrugog, while the wine comes from the sweeping vineyards of Tregaron and candied yams.

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