Warplanes launch four strikes on rebel-held town

as the two sides faced off across a new frontline close to major oil export terminals.
The battlefield has become mired in attack and counter-attack between the loose-knit rebel army of young volunteers and defectors, and Libya’s army in a buffer zone of barren desert and scrub between east and west.
Rebels were fortifying their positions and stocking up with ammunition and food while reconnaissance teams from both sides assessed each other with binoculars. Earlier, rebel forces had staged a number of forward attacks.
Libyan rebels claimed they had rejected overtures by an alleged representative of Mua-mmar Gaddafi to negotiate his exit as his grip on power is increasingly challenged.
The Tripoli government said talk of such negotiations was “nonsense”.
There were four air strikes, one hitting a residential area, on the oil terminal town of Ras Lanuf yesterday following similar attacks the previous day. No casualties were reported.
“An air strike hit a house in a residential area of Ras Lanuf. There is a big hole in the ground floor of the two-storey home,” one witness said. “A massive plume of smoke and dust flew up in the area from the strike. Men rushed to the area shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest).”
Many homes, including the one hit, appeared to be evacuated. Families fled the oil town and rebels moved their weapons into the desert due to fears of a government forces ground attack.
Officials at rebel headquarters, based in Libya’s second city of Benghazi where the uprising against Gaddafi began, said there had been talks about Gaddafi stepping down initiated by a person claiming to represent Gaddafi, although Tripoli denies any approach has been made.
“I confirm that we received contact from a Gaddafi representative seeking to negotiate Gaddafi’s exit. We rejected this,” a media officer for the rebel Libyan National Council, Mustafa Gheriani, told Reuters.
In defiant speeches, Gaddafi has vowed to fight on and has said he will never leave Libya and end his 41-year-old rule.
Rebels, who have set their sights on Gaddafi’s reinforced hometown of Sirte further west, said government forces had dug in their tanks near the town of Bin Jawad while rebels retreated to Ras Lanuf and set up a forward checkpoint.
The two towns are about 60 km apart on the strategic coastal road along the Mediterranean that leads to Gaddafi’s stronghold of Tripoli.
One of the first air strikes struck near a rebel checkpoint close to a residential district, shattering a water supply pipe.
Mustafa Askat, an oil worker who was at the site, said: “Yes I saw it, it was at 11 yesterday.” He said the attack would affect water supplies to the city.
“We have a hospital inside, we have sick people and they need water urgently,” he said.
Rebels fired at the aircraft, chanting anti-Gaddafi slogans. One mimicked a line from one of his recent speeches in which he urged Libyans to defend against “terrorists” in their midst: “Alley to alley, house to house, oh Muammar, you donkey!” – Reuters.

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