TRIPOLI (Arrahmah.com) – Military confrontation in Libya resembles a tug of war, when approximately equal in strength rivals can not radically change the situation in their favor.
In the past day, the front line that divides regular troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi and the rebels ran between the towns of Marsa el-Brega and Ajdabiya. The armed opposition is aware that the loss of Ajdabiya would open the way for the Libyan troops to its main stronghold in the east of Libya – the city of Benghazi, and therefore put the end to its stubborn resistance.
Advance units of the conflicting parties often engaged in direct fightings and actively maneuvered that misled the command of the Western crusader coalition. So, the pilots of the striking group again failed to properly assess the situation and attacked from the air the positions of their allies.
The bombings killed several insurgents, and injured more than 10 people, tanks and other equipment of the opposition have been destroyed. After this kind of the “support”, the troops of the Transitional National Council were forced to retreat from Marsa Brega to Ajdabiya.
As reported on Friday by a representative of the NATO military command, Russell Harding, the major air strikes occurred in the areas of the towns of Marsa el-Brega and Misurata.
“Our main objectives are the tanks, mostly T-72 armored vehicles, artillery and missile systems, air defense systems and ammunition dumps, – he stressed. – The situation in the combat zone between the towns of Marsa el-Brega and Ajdabiya remains extremely volatile and uncertain. Moreover, until yesterday, we have not received information that the rebels use armored vehicles”.
The NATO’s military demonstrated at a press briefing at the headquarters of the alliance a video confirming the destruction of a tank, presumably a T-72 that was distroyed using the monitoring system of an aircraft of the crusader alliance. In the final recording, one can see a convoy of dozens of open trucks which quickly move the road in one direction.
The NATO spokesman said this move a “hasty run of Gaddafi’s forces” after the destruction of the tank in close proximity to them. At the same time, according to reports from the front lines, as well as to the statement by Harding, the destroyed enemy tank could well belong to the rebels, as well as those same trucks that “hastily ran from the battlefield.”
“At the moment, the alliance investigates all claims of “friendly fire” in Libya”, he assured, admitting that until now the alliance had no system of information exchange with the Libyan rebels.
Last erroneous air strikes of NATO forces drove the rebels to resort to the unusual “demasking” of their armed vehicles and equipment, covering them from above with the pink paint, so the NATO pilots were able to distinguish between them and the formations loyal to the government. But it is not clear if the opposition could bring that information about their innovation to Western coalition forces.
After the transfer to the NATO of the command over the entire operation in Libya on March 31, 1,325 combat sorties, 527 of which were strike mission, have been carried out. As explained by a representative of the joint NATO forces in Europe, General van Um, the task of the strike mission is to identify and attack targets, but the result of this mission is not always a bombardment.
source : Kavkaz center
