American and European bombs battered Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s most important bastion of support in his tribal homeland of Surt on Sunday night, as rebels seeking his ouster capitalized on the damage from the Western airstrikes to erase their recent losses and return to the city’s doorstep.Their swift return, recapturing two important oil refineries and a strategic port within 20 hours, set the stage for a battle in Surt that both sides say could help decide the war for Libya.
The ease of the rebel march west along the coast underscored the essential role of Western airstrikes, now focused mainly on Colonel Qaddafi’s ground troops, in reversing the rebels’ fortunes. But it also framed anew the question of how the poorly equipped and disorganized rebel forces might fare against Colonel Qaddafi’s garrison in Surt, where air cover may be less useful than it was along the open coastal road.
As Western warplanes again bombed sites around Tripoli and other Qaddafi strongholds on the ninth day of airstrikes, NATO agreed at a meeting in Brussels to take over the mission. The decision effectively relieved the United States of leading the fight, and ended a week of squabbling among the allies over the issue.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the change, for which the United States had pressed, would allow the American military to begin reducing its presence in the coming days.
In interviews on Sunday, Mr. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left open how long the American commitment would be. President Obama plans to address the nation on Monday night about the American role in Libya amid continuing questions about its objectives and duration.
An official with the Pentagon said Sunday that it was already beginning to reduce the number of American warships involved in the operation. The official said that at least one of the Navy submarines that had fired Tomahawk missiles into Libya had left the area, and that a further naval pullout was likely.
Mr. Obama will be able to cite some early success, as the airstrikes have lifted the rebels back from the brink of defeat in the eastern city of Benghazi and enabled them to rush west along the coast past their farthest gains of their previous peak weeks ago.
After clashes with government forces overnight near the town of Al Uqaylah, rebel fighters met little resistance on Sunday as they pushed from the city of Ajdabiya past the oil towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf, recapturing the two important refineries. By the evening, they had pushed the front line west of Bin Jawwad, according to fighters returning from the front.
“There wasn’t resistance,” said Faraj Sheydani, 42, a rebel fighter interviewed on his return from the front. “There was no one in front of us. There’s no fighting.”
In Tripoli, the explosions of about 10 large bombs near the city were heard downtown on Sunday night, followed by barrages of antiaircraft fire and cascades of tracers. At a news conference, a short time later, Musa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, declined to comment on the exact location of the battle lines. But he argued that Western powers were now attacking the Libyan Army in retreat, a far cry from the United Nations mandate to establish a no-fly zone to protect civilians.
“Some were attacked as they were clearly moving westbound,” he said. “Clearly NATO is taking sides in this civil conflict. It is illegal. It is not allowed by the Security Council resolution. And it is immoral, of course.”
In western Libya, however, the rebel-held city of Misurata was still under siege by loyalist forces. By Sunday evening, rebels were again reporting street fighting in the center of the city as well as renewed shelling and mortar fire from Qaddafi tanks and artillery from west and northwest of the city.
Allied airstrikes outside Misurata had kept up through the previous night, rebels said, destroying a major ammunition depot that exploded in a blaze of light. It was still burning 13 hours after the initial blast, said Muhammad, a rebel spokesman there whose full name was withheld for his family’s safety.
Speaking over a satellite hook-up and hospital generator, he contradicted statements from the Qaddafi government that it had restored power and water to the city. He said that rebels had used a local generator to restore electricity to about half the city. But he said that water remained cut off and that residents were using a small supply from a desalination facility there. The reports were impossible to confirm because the Qaddafi government has prevented journalists from reaching the city.
Muhammad said he believed the airstrikes had not killed any civilians in the area, but had struck barracks and airfields, killing many Libyan soldiers. “Thousands of them, I hope,” he said.
In Tripoli on Sunday, most stores were closed. Usually busy streets were deserted. Officials said the port had been closed to ships carrying refined fuel as well as food and other goods. Gasoline was in increasingly short supply, and lines of cars at gas stations stretched for several blocks. Some motorists said they had turned out before dawn for a chance to fill up, or waited in line for more than two hours to reach the pump.
Residents also stood in long lines for bread at bakeries, mainly because the migrant workers Libyans rely on to bake and do other service jobs have fled the country.
The NATO agreement was announced Sunday evening by its secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He said that “NATO will implement all aspects of the U.N. resolution. Nothing more, nothing less.”
He said the decision would take “immediate effect,” but it may take up to two days for the transfer to be completed.NATO had agreed to take on the no-fly zone late last week, but the decision on Sunday expanded its command to the entire military mission, including the air campaign. Until now, the bombing campaign has had no central command, although the United States has been coordinating the effort.The alliance was divided over the issue, because France did not want to cede control to NATO, arguing that it was American-dominated and therefore an uncomfortable brand for another war in an Arab country. But other countries like Italy and Norway said that their participation depended on NATO running the war under the political control of its governments. Turkey also insisted on NATO control.
The Security Council resolution, adopted 10 days ago, authorized a no-fly zone over Libya and “all necessary measures” to protect civilians. The coalition has interpreted the protection of civilians to include attacking Qaddafi forces in support of the opposition.
But the resolution also calls for an arms embargo that applies to the entire territory of Libya, which means that any outside supply of arms to the opposition is being done covertly.
The military campaign will be led by Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, a Canadian who is the deputy to an American commander and serves under the supreme commander, Europe, who is also an American.
In interviews in Tripoli under the close supervision of Libyan government minders, several people complained about the Western airstrikes. But even under those circumstances several people voiced their dissent. One person waiting for gas volunteered that he blamed Colonel Qaddafi’s rule for the shortages.
“Please, I want to say something to the world,” another man said in a store nearby, pointing to a group of six men. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, we all don’t like Colonel Qaddafi. We like Libyan freedom.”
One member of the group, who outside the store moments before had told a particularly florid story about the evil of the international airstrikes, abruptly walked out the door. “Dangerous,” he muttered as he left.
In Green Square, the site of a continuous pro-Qaddafi rally for more than a month, the crowd was unusually small and subdued; some said Qaddafi supporters had shifted their energies to a rally inside his compound, where his supporters say they have gathered as civilian shields against Western bombs.
Many people in Tripoli, including those supporting Colonel Qaddafi and those opposing him, said they were focused closely on the battle for Surt.
If Surt falls, “it is game over,” one man said, insisting that the atmosphere in the capital was already slipping. “The government is losing control,” he said. “You can feel it.”
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