Western Coalitions to create fund for Libya Freedom Fighters

Countries involved in military campaign pledge money to provide food, medicine and supplies to opponents of Gaddafi.

The NATO-backed coalition in Libya has said it will create a fund for rebels fighting the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

The Transitional National Council (TNC), based in Benghazi, has appealed for loans of up to $3bn, saying they need around half of that for food, medicine and other basic supplies.

Italy, host of Thursday's meeting in Rome of the Contact Group on Libya, said the temporary special fund would aim to channel cash to the opposition administration in its eastern Libyan stronghold.

Franco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, said $250m were already available, while his French counterpart said the fund could be up and running within weeks.

But efforts to unblock Libyan state assets frozen in overseas accounts, or to allow the rebels to get past UN sanctions that prevent their selling oil on international markets, have been held up.

"We'll be discussing a financial mechanism, we'll be discussing other forms of aid," Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said at a joint news conference with Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister.

"I will be formally announcing our non-lethal assistance so I think that there is an effort with urgency to meet the requests that the TNC is making," she said.

Loan rather than gift'

Clinton said the US government would try and free up some of the $30bn it has frozen in Libyan assets to help the TNC.

She said the administration of Barack Obama wants "to tap some portion of those assets owned by Gaddafi and the Libyan government in the United States, so we can make those funds available to help the Libyan
people".

Kuwait said it has pledged $180m and Qatar will put in $400-$500m, its prime minister said on Thursday.

However Britain has said it has no plans to contribute to the new fund because it had already made a "very substantial" contribution to humanitarian assistance.

Laurence Lee, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Rome, said it had been suggested that the money would not be a gift, but a loan from the coalition countries.

"One assumes that in the fullness of time this would be repaid by oil sales, which Qatar already started with one shipment of oil. And it may be able to be repaid relatively quickly.

He said the countries that recognise the rebel council, France, Italy and Qatar, are the ones with which the TNC will do business.

"The fact that it will be France and Italy that will be administing this fund is bound to lead some people to think that this is quite a good way of persuading a cash-strapped eastern Libya in Benghazi to accept a deal which is going to put oil and money into the hands of countries like France, Italy and Qatar.

"So although it looks like benevolence, there is a hard headed financial imperative that goes underneath it."

Mahmoud Shammam, chief spokesman for the TNC, has said the rebels urgently need $1.5bn to cover immediate running costs.

"We need this for medical supplies, for food supplies, to keep the minimum functions of normal life - electricity,
running hospitals etc," he said on Wednesday.

The rebels also want to press their cases for better weapons and equipment, Shammam suggested, saying that they are "hungry for basic arms."

The meeting of Libya Contact Group brought together foreign ministers from countries including France, Britain, the United States, Italy and Qatar as well as representatives of the Arab League and the African Union.

British officials said the Rome meeting would seek to impose new restrictions on arms smuggling and mercenaries operating within Libya, and hoped the contact group would work on action intended to restrict Gaddafi's exports of crude oil and his ability to import refined oil products.


Continuation of clashes

As the ministers met in Italy, fighting continued on the ground in Libya.

In Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, a rebel spokesman said NATO planes struck Gaddafi's forces and weapons depots west of the rebel-held town in two raids on Thursday.

"As far as we know, T-72 tanks, Grad missile launchers and heavy weaponry are kept in those depots," the spokesman, named Abdulrahman, told Reuters by telephone.

Earlier, Abdulrahman said pro-Gaddafi forces had fired about 50 Russian-made Grad rockets into Zintan on Thursday.

Near the border with Tunisia, a rebel fighter told Reuters there was intense fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces in the area of the village of Ghezaya.

 The village lies between the Dehiba-Wazin border crossing, which is in rebel hands, and the town of Nalut where residents said Gaddafi loyalists had been shelling rebel positions.

Rebels say they are preparing for an attempt by Gaddafi's forces to retake the crossing.

Late on Thursday a Tunisian security source said more than a dozen mortar rounds fired from Libya had landed near Dehiba, one of them near a reservoir supplying the town with drinking water.

Libyan freedom fighters resist Ajdabiya assault - Libya Uprise Latest Update

Anti-dictator forces hold sway in key town but frontline fighters complain of lack of supplies and fear infiltrators



Freedom fighters in eastern Libya fought off an attack by blood thirsty Dictators troops in the town of Ajdabiya on Sunday, a day after retreating from a key oil facility around 100 kilometres farther west.


Forces loyal to longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi alias Butcher Of Libya advanced on Ajdabiya under a heavy artillery barrage in the morning and fought at close range with freeedom figters on the town’s southern outskirts before a counterattack forced them back, witnesses said.



On Saturday, with the help of NATO air strikes along the main coastal road, freeedom figters reached the outskirts of Brega, the site of a major oil and petrochemical port west of Ajdabiya.


But a sandstorm that began overnight hampered air cover, and by Sunday morning freeedom figters had retreated.


Dozens of civilian vehicles, many of them carrying families, fled Ajdabiya throughout the morning, and some freeedom figters also appeared to join the withdrawal.


Two fighters were injured in the battle, suffering superficial shrapnel wounds during the bombardment, but none were seriously injured or killed, doctors at Ajdabiya Hospital said.


In response to the advance by Gaddafi’s forces, the opposition Transitional National Council issued orders that casualties should no longer go to Ajdabiya Hospital and should instead be sent directly to Benghazi, the seat of the freeedom figters government around 160 kilometres to the north, the doctors said.


Some of the wounded already at the hospital were also evacuated. At least five ambulances with flashing lights and sirens blaring could be seen driving north out of Ajdabiya before noon.


Dozens of explosions from incoming artillery fire could be heard south of the town, and fighters said there were at least 100 blasts throughout the morning.

Dictators forces say Brega under their control but freedom fighters say they have retaken Brega

Videos of freedom fighters in libya


Dictator and possible war criminal Muammar Gaddafi's forces are slowly pushing towards the main oppostion-held towns in Libya, reports say.


Ajdabiya, the last major town before the freedom fighter base in Benghazi, came under heavy aerial attack. In the west, ground forces and tanks have begun shelling the town of Zuwara. Freedom fighters say they have retaken Brega, but the government has denied the claim.


Earlier, the UN Security Council met to discuss the imposition of a no-fly zone, but there was no consensus. The BBC's Barbara Plett says there were divisions about authorising such a zone, with France calling it a game-changer, but countries such as Russia expressed caution, saying serious questions remained.


Meanwhile, a UN envoy, Abdul Ilah Khatib, has met with Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Kusa in Tripoli.
In the meeting, Mr Khatib, a former Jordanian foreign minister, reiterated demands for an end to the violence and requested access for humanitarian groups, a UN spokesman said.


With fighting continuing in the east of Libya, it is not clear exactly where the front line is.The eastern oil town of Brega changed hands several times over the weekend, amid a relentless barrage of air and ground attacks by government forces.


Sources; BBC, Al Jazeera

Libyan freedom fighters fall back - Dictator Gaddafi advances !

According to state TV reports, Dictator Gaddafi's forces had regained key oil town and freedom fighters fall back towards eastern strongholds.



Libyan armed forces loyal to Dictator and possible suspect of war crimes Muammar Gaddafi have cleared "armed gangs" from the oil-rich town of Brega in the east, an army source told state television on Sunday.


"Brega has been cleansed of armed gangs," the military source was quoted as saying. The report could not immediately be verified. State television has in the past issued false reports claiming territory.


But the claim comes amid a string of setbacks for the rebels who have lost several cities in the east to pro-Gaddafi forces. Brega's fall into the hands of Gaddafi loyalists would deal a further blow to the opposition's morale and momentum. 



Pro-Gaddafi forces have been swiftly advancing on the poorly equipped and loosely organised freedom fighters who had seized much of the eastern parts of the country since the uprising against Gaddafi's decades-long rule began last month.


On Saturday, pro-Gaddafi forces pushed the frontline deeper into freedom fighters territory to just 40km outside Brega, the site of a major oil terminal.


The AFP news agency quoted freedom fighter sources as saying dictators forces were advancing from the west after seizing the town of Uqayla and the village of Bisher 20km from Brega.


Retreating freedom fighters, most of them young, were seen on trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns along the coastal road heading towards Ajdabiya, 80km away, the gateway to the main freedom fighters cities of Benghazi and Tobruk.


No air activity was seen but artillery bombardments were continuing, according to freedom fighters.


"We have to remember that this is not an organised army. This is a group of teachers, engineers, street cleaners - people who have had no association with weapons whatsoever. And now they're coming up against very strong, well-equipped forces. And we are seeing a lot of casualties. Basically if it is not sorted out soon, then those casualty figures are going to go up and up and up.It's not a very good situation at the moment; it is not looking very positive, quite the reverse." Tony Birtley (Al Jazeera), reporting from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi said.


International pressure is growing for a no-fly zone to be imposed over Libya but the move, approved in a key resolution by the Arab League on Saturday in Cairo, still faces opposition from UN Security Council heavyweights Russia and China.


Libya responded to the Arab League resolution calling it "an unacceptable departure" from the body's charter, state television said on Sunday.


The US hailed the Arab League decision as an "important step".