Reply #86: NATO Says Libya Strikes Are Growing After a Pause

[pinboy3niner]

Source: New York Times

NATO Says Libya Strikes Are Growing After a Pause


By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and C. J. CHIVERS
Published: April 6, 2011


TRIPOLI, Libya — Stung by criticism from rebel leaders, NATO officials said Wednesday that the pace of attacks on the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was increasing, after a slight slowdown as the coalition handed off responsibility earlier in the week.

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Rebels said the Qaddafi forces appeared to have adopted new tactics in response to the Western airstrikes, using mortars far more than tanks, either to present smaller targets or because the tanks were wiped out. “They are changing the technique and they are shelling by mortar now everywhere, so instead of no-fly zone we have no safe zone,” said Aiman, a doctor in the besieged city of Misurata whose last name was withheld for safety reasons, in an Internet message.

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In the rebel-held city of Misurata in western Libya and on the eastern front with the rebels around the oil town of Brega, Qaddafi forces continued to hammer rebels with rockets, artillery and mortars, as rebel leaders expressed exasperation at the limits of NATO’s support.

The rebels in the east played cat and mouse on Wednesday with the superior Qaddafi forces entrenched in Brega, advancing a few miles from their position about 15 miles outside the city, firing rockets and then rushing back to avoid the highly accurate artillery fire that inevitably ensues. In contrast to Tuesday, when the skies were largely empty, several airstrikes were seen on Wednesday, a doctor with the rebels said. But the Qaddafi forces were clearly in control of Brega, and there seemed little chance of dislodging them without the heavy airstrikes that two weeks ago sent the loyalist forces reeling toward the Qaddafi stronghold of Surt.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/world/africa/07libya.html