Libya Rebels Want Foreign Air Cover as Gaddafi Aviation Strikes Them

Libyan volunteers to the rebel army listen to instructions of an army instructor during a recruit day in one of the colleges of the University of Benghazi, Libya, 03 March 2011. EPA/BGNES

Anti-Gaddafi rebels in Libya have called for foreign air cover to set up a no-fly zone after they have been bombed by the regime aviation for three days.

The popular uprising in Libya initially had apprehensions regarding the possibility of any form of foreign intervention by NATO and EU, even if it means only the setting up of a no fly zone over the country to even out the fighting force. However, the airpower of the regime has allowed dictator Muammar Gaddafi to roll back their momentum.

Libyan forces launched a fresh air strike on rebel territory in the east on Friday as pumped-up opposition fighters pushed forward the frontline against Muammar Gaddafi's regime, the Al Ahram reported.  

There were no casualties or damage as a government jet bombed an opposition-controlled military base on the outskirts of the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiya on the third straight day of air strikes.

The fresh air strike came as rebel fighters pushed the frontline forward, heading west along the main coastal road out of Uqayla, a tiny village 175 miles (280 kilometres) from the main rebel headquarters in Benghazi, Libya's second city.

Pushing the frontline west helps protect the Mediterranean towns of Brega, with its oil refinery, and Ajdabiya, a key road junction, which are vital if Gaddafi's forces are not to isolate them from the rest of the country.

"We're trying to minimise losses on both sides. You know in Libya, we're all relatives. We're a country of tribes. We all have relatives in Sirte," said Captain Shoaib al-Akaki, who defected from the military, expressed concern about fighting, referring to a coastal town where Gaddafi was born.

The Al Ahram points out that a patchwork coalition of rebels controls eastern Libya and some towns in the west following a revolt that started on February 15, but Gaddafi, who has ruled for four decades, retains his grip on the capital Tripoli.

Meanwhile, reports say that in Tripoli, opponents of Gaddafi prepared to march in the capital after prayers, but the authorities were preventing foreign media from reporting independently on the protests.

"Victory or death ... We will not stop until we liberate all this country," Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel National Libyan Council told supporters of a two-week-old uprising that has shaken Gaddafi's grip on the North African oil producer, as cited by international media.

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