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Clashes as rebels deny Libyan counter-offensive
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Clashes as rebels deny Libyan counter-offensive
AFP - Monday, March 7
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Clashes as rebels deny Libyan counter-offensive
RAS LANUF, Libya (AFP) - – Air strikes targeted rebel positions early Sunday and insurgents retreated from forward positions but Libyan TV claims that Moamer Kadhafi's forces had retaken key towns in a major offensive were swiftly denied.
The rebels said they had withdrawn from the coastal town of Bin Jawad, occupied Saturday in an advance westward on Sirte, Kadhafi's home town, after clashes which a doctor said left at least 14 wounded.
Thousands celebrated in Tripoli as state television channel Allibiya said government forces had taken control of the country's third city of Misrata, the key oil centre of Ras Lanuf and even Tobruk near the Egyptian border.
AFP reporters in Ras Lanuf, taken by rebels early on Saturday, confirmed the town was still in rebel hands despite being hit by air strikes early Sunday.
But residents in Misrata said government tanks had begun shelling the town.
A rebel officer, Colonel Bashir al-Moghrabi, told reporters in earlier in Ras Lanuf rebels were still in control in Misrata as well as Zawiyah, west of Tripoli, where fierce battles took place on Saturday.
A member of the rebel-appointed council in Tobruk, Fateh Faraj, contacted by AFP, also said claims that that town had fallen were "not true."
Doctors rushing the wounded to treatment in Bin Jawad said the rebels were ambushed by Kadhafi loyalists hiding in houses.
A French journalist shot in the leg, but not thought to be seriously wounded, told AFP he had been driving with rebel fighters towards Bin Jawad when they came under fire.
The rebels had vowed to march on Sirte from Bin Jawad, which was the furthest point AFP saw them deployed along the Mediterranean coast on Saturday.
Asked when they would move on Sirte, Moghrabi said, "We don't know. All the soldiers are coming from Benghazi. We are more than 8,000 men."
Two attacks by lone warplanes targeted a checkpoint on the eastern edge of Ras Lanuf and a rebel camp set up in a former military barracks in the centre.
Rebels responded with anti-aircraft fire and there were no immediate reports of casualties, but a huge explosion was heard later in the town.
On Saturday the rebels shot down a loyalist fighter-bomber near Ras Lanuf, killing the two pilots, according to a video clip seen by AFP.
Britain's Defence Secretary Liam Fox said Sunday that a 'small British diplomatic team' was in Benghazi amid reports rebels in eastern Libya were holding a British special forces unit and junior diplomat.
"I can confirm that a small British diplomatic team is in Benghazi. We are in touch with them but it would be inappropriate for me to comment further on that for reasons I am quite sure you understand," Fox told BBC television.
Earlier, The Sunday Times newspaper, citing sources, said the Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers, thought to be up to eight men, were captured along with the diplomat they were escorting through the rebel-held east.
Although the reports of a government military offensive were belied on the ground, it was clear that a propaganda offensive was under way.
In apparently orchestrated scenes in Tripoli, around 4,000 people flooded into Green Square. Military and para-military forces fired their weapons into the air, unconcerned about falling bullets.
"We are shooting to celebrate because we are beating Al-Qaeda. We have won, Al-Qaeda is gone," one soldier told AFP.
Women and children joined the crowds, and an AFP reporter witnessed children as young as seven firing pistols in the air.
"Water, biscuits and portraits of Kadhafi are being distributed to the crowd" the correspondent said.
The rebels on Saturday declared themselves Libya's sole representative on the world stage.
The national council -- the embryonic provisional government -- made its proclamation at a meeting in Benghazi, the rebel stronghold in the east of the North African country.
"The council declares it is the sole representative all over Libya," former justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil said.
Abdel Jalil, one of the first high-profile Libyans to defect from Kadhafi's four-decade regime when the uprising began last month, has been appointed chairman of the 30-member body.
Meanwhile, Kadhafi's government asked the Arab League to reverse a February 22 decision suspending it from the organisation's meetings, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim said. Related article:Kadhafi seeks UN, AU probe into Libyan unrest
Kadhafi told the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche he wanted the United Nations or the African Union to probe the unrest and promised: "We will let this panel work unhampered."
Kadhafi also said three Dutch soldiers captured by his forces in northern Libya during an unauthorised rescue mission were being held prisoner.
In his interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, Kadhafi also underscored that the violence posing the greatest challenge to his long rule would have serious repercussions for Europe, which has been facing an uphill battle to stem clandestine immigration, especially from North Africa and Asia. Related article:Libya refugee aid operation intensifies
"Thousands of people from Libya will invade Europe," he said, "and there will be no one to stop them."
An estimated 100,000 migrants have crossed the Tunisian border with Libya since February 20, Tunisian officials said.
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