Libya:Mediterranean port seized by Libyan opposition + Related News

Laaska News  August 20,2011

Over 30 Libyan rebels are dead and some 150 wounded in the battle for the Mediterranean port of Zliten to the east of Tripoli.

Libya’s National Liberation Army stormed Zliten on Friday morning. It’s now largely under its control with the government troops retreating to the city’s western quarters.  

VOR.

Libyan rebels claim advances in Zliten in west front

BENGHAZI, Libya, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) — Libyan rebels said Friday they had made advances in Zliten and controlled most of the city in the west front after fierce battles against forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Some 32 rebel fighters were killed and at least 150 were wounded Friday during clashes with soldiers of the Gaddafi forces in Zlitan, east of the capital Tripoli, Libyan TV quoted a rebel spokesman as saying.

Now the fighting is in west of Zlitan, it said.

Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, a military spokesman based in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, said on Aug. 7 at a regular press conference that “Zliten will never return to be at the hand of Gaddafi.”

At a press conference on Wednesday, Bani said the Libyan rebels had captured Sabratha, a town about 80 kilometers west of Tripoli.

On the eastern front near Brega, the rebels had controlled two of the three residential districts in the oil town and were fighting with the Gaddafi forces for the industrial area, said Bani.

Xinhua.

Tunisian spokesman denies Gaddafi’s family in Tunisia

TUNIS, August 19 (Xinhua) — An interior ministry spokesman denied reports on Friday that Gaddafi’s family are in Tunisia after fleeing from Libya.

“Our teams are working around the clock to monitor border traffic,” he said, adding that “neither Gaddafi nor members of his family entered the country in 2011.” His statement was broadcasted on Tunisian radio.

Earlier on Friday, Tunisian Radio Mosaique FM quoted a Libyan rebel source as saying that members of Gaddafi’s family fled to Tunisia to board a Venezuelan plane bound for Caracas.

The report also said that it was highly likely that Gaddafi himself is no longer in the Libyan capital Tripoli, following overnight NATO strikes against his residential compound.

Xinhua.
Laaska News.
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