Turmoil in Libya (2011) and post-Gaddafi blowback

[tomahawk6]

The Sudanese Army has moved 400 miles into Libya to take control of the strategic town of Kufrah. Kufrah is the gateway to the southern oil fields.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8611199/Sudanese-army-seizes-southern-Libyan-town.html

The Sudanese army has seized a town in southern Libya that is the gateway to oilfields crucial to rebel hopes of establishing financial independence.

Officials overseeing the no-fly zone enforced by Nato over Libya said the Sudanese move north of border had not encountered resistance from troops loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi.

Since the February uprising against his regime, the Libyan leader’s forces have been concentrated around Tripoli, the capital; Sirte, the eastern town that is Col Gaddafi’s birthplace and Sebha, the desert outpost where the dictator grew up.

Officials said control of the town of Kufra and nearby military base granted the Sudanese a key strategic foothold between the regime and the opposition Transitional National Council (TNC) which holds the eastern seaboard and a series of rebel enclaves.

The Sudanese have not disrupted efforts to resume oil production on nearby southern oilfields.

“Our surveillance shows that they are not moving oil, so its not about money in the short term,” said one Western official. “The commercial oil companies monitoring is reporting that there has been no movement of oil out of Libya.

But the Sudanese clearly now have a stake in Libya re-emerging in the oil market.

“The Gaddafi army was coming in and taking out the oilfields every time the rebels start pumping oil. They’ve dismantled the fields quite carefully so the rebels need security down there. Clearly there needs to be tribal support but the Sudanese could make it too risky for Gaddafi’s intervention as well.”

The last attack on the Mislah and Sarir oilfields took place on June 12, just days before the deployment of Sudanese forces to Kufra.

Rebel spokesmen said they hoped to produce up to 250,000 barrels per day from the oilfields and pump it along a pipeline to the Marsa al-Haringa depot near Tobruk.

 

[old medic]

Turkey recognizes Libya rebels, gives $300 million
AP foreign, Sunday July 3 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9725648

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Turkey's foreign minister says his country recognizes the leadership of the Libyan rebels as the sole legitimate representatives of the country.

The show of diplomatic support by Turkey, a key regional player and the only Muslim-majority member of NATO, gave a boost to the rebels. The nod comes amid growing international isolation of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya on Sunday. He says his country has given the rebels' Transitional National Council $300 million, two-thirds as a loan and one-third as a grant.

France, Italy, Qatar and several others in the region have already recognized the rebel government.

 

[CougarKing]

Qaddafi offering to leave/go into exile?

link

Gaddafi would go in exchange for security: report
By Steve Gutterman | Reuters – Tue, 5 Jul, 2011


MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian newspaper said Tuesday that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was willing to give up power in exchange for security guarantees, citing a high-level Russian official.

The report in the respected daily Kommersant, which did not identify its source, came a day after the search for ways to end the war in Libya dominated Russia's talks with NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen and South African President Jacob Zuma.

"The colonel (Gaddafi) is sending signals that he is prepared to relinquish power in exchange for security guarantees," Kommersant quoted what it called a high-level source in the Russian leadership as saying.

The source said in the report that other nations, potentially including France, were willing to provide those guarantees.

The Kommersant report also said Gaddafi wanted his son Saif al-Islam to be permitted to run in elections if he steps down, a condition the rebels might not accept.

The Libyan government said Monday that it was in talks with opposition figures, but the other side stuck to entrenched positions on Gaddafi's fate.

Saif al-Islam told a French newspaper there was no question of negotiating an end to his father's 42-year rule, and the rebel National Transitional Council backtracked on its statement that Gaddafi could stay in Libya if he gave up all power.

(Reporting by Steve Gutterman; editing by Ralph Boulton)
...

 

[CougarKing]

Colombian mercenaries in Libya?

AP Interview: Libyan official says NATO ramping up campaign to clear ground for rebel advance

TRIPOLI, Libya - A senior Libyan official Thursday accused NATO of intensifying its bombing campaign and backing foreign mercenaries to lay the groundwork for an advance by rebels trying to topple Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told The Associated Press in an early morning interview that the alliance's increased bombings represent the "final phase" of the air campaign. But he said the push will fail and that civilians will be the ones to pay the price.

Kaim said NATO targeted police checkpoints in the Nafusa mountains southwest of Tripoli ahead of a rebel advance toward the village of Qawalish, which rebel fighters claimed they seized Wednesday. They were later pushed back by government troops, he said.

A fuel depot in the key eastern oil town of Brega was also destroyed, Kaim said. NATO said it hit equipment used to refuel government military vehicles.

The intensified campaign, he said, is focused on targeting civilian infrastructure and police checkpoints, and providing additional weapons to rebel fighters.

"The aim of these attacks is to help the rebels to advance. But I assure you, it will be another failure for them," he said.

Kaim also said Libyan forces have evidence that Colombian mercenaries funded by the West and its Arab allies have joined the rebel fighters trying to advance toward the capital Tripoli from the western rebel-held city of Misrata.
Some of the Colombian fighters had been killed in clashes near Misrata on Wednesday, he said. While Kaim was not immediately able to provide evidence to substantiate the allegation, he said it would soon be shown to journalists based in Tripoli.

NATO began airstrikes against Libya in March. The coalition and its Arab allies are operating under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians.

Some countries in the coalition have interpreted that mandate broadly, with France acknowledging it has provided weapons to rebels operating in the mountains and other countries providing non-lethal aid to rebel-held areas.

Libyan officials earlier this week showed journalists assault rifles and ammunition they claimed had been shipped to rebels by the wealthy Gulf Arab state of Qatar.

Rebel forces took heavy losses in the fighting outside Misrata Wednesday as Gadhafi's soldiers fired more than 500 rockets at rebel positions near the town of Zlitan, west of the city. Dr. Ayman Abu Shahma, a physician in Misrata, said 18 fighters had been killed along with two civilians, including a 12-year-old girl. Thirty other people were wounded.

NATO late last week announced it had begun ramping up its airstrikes on military targets in the western part of Libya. It said it is targeting government forces in cities and along "major lines of communication."
On Wednesday, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary-general, said the alliance had damaged or destroyed more than 2,700 military targets since its campaign began.

"The momentum is against Gadhafi, his economic strength to sustain war is declining, his generals and ministers are deserting, the international community has turned against him," he told reporters in Brussels. "For Gadhafi, the game is over."

Fighting between rebels and government troops began in February when a popular movement against Gadhafi quickly escalated into armed conflict.

The civil war has been largely deadlocked, with the rebels controlling the east and Gadhafi clinging to large parts of western Libya, but unable to retake rebel bridgeheads there.

Along with Qawalish, rebels were able to push into the nearby mountain village of Kikla on Wednesday morning, said Col. Gomaa Ibrahim, a member of the local military council. It wasn't immediately possible to confirm the Libyan government's claim that the rebels had been forced back from Qawalish.

While the two towns are small, their capture would further expand the area seized from government troops in recent months by relatively small bands of mountain rebels. A string of similar victories has left rebels in control of most of the Nafusa mountains, bringing them within about 100 miles (160 kilometres) of Tripoli.

In Tripoli on Wednesday, Gadhafi's regime sought to show it remains in control of the country by laying out plans to try rebel leaders for treason in court next week.

A judge compiling the charges laid out his case against 21 rebel officials, including the National Transitional Council's head, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil. Defendants will be tried in absentia.

Rebel spokesman Jalal Galal dismissed the charges as a political stunt.

"He (Gadhafi) thinks it's a joke or a game, but now the people have awakened, and the people have spoken," he said in response to the allegations.

The charges include facilitating foreign intervention in Libya, providing aid to the enemy and seeking to topple Gadhafi.

Judge Khalifa Isa Khalifa told reporters in Tripoli that he will present the case before a special court presided over by a three-judge panel next week.

The allegations "amount to treason of the homeland of Libya," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said. Those found guilty of treason could face the death penalty.

Last week, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi for alleged crimes against humanity. International prosecutors at the Netherlands-based court allege government troops fired on civilian protesters during anti-Gadhafi demonstrations inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year.

Libyan officials reject the ICC's authority, saying their special court will bring justice to anyone who committed crimes during the uprising. Khalifa declined to say whether this also meant Gadhafi and his inner circle.

"We are ready and prepared to investigate any person in this country if there are people who are willing to come to the (attorney general) with accusations or complaints," he said.

In rebel-held Benghazi, tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into Martyrs' Square for what observers described as one of the biggest rallies in months. They waved the rebels' tricolour flag along with those of allied nations including Qatar, France and Britain.

link

 

[Sigs Pig]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/troops-welcomed-home-from-libya-125620933.html

I just don't know what to say about the shoulder patch "THAT OTHERS MAY KILL".
Do some feel that is good PR?

ME

Sorry, forgot to add "Welcome Home"

 

[brihard]

Out of curiosity, has anyone figured out what medal will be awarded for Libya yet?

 

[MikeL]

IMO it's not a big deal ref that patch.. I'm pretty sure the general public realize that bombs being dropped means bad guys are being killed in Libya. 

 

[Rheostatic]

Out of curiosity, has anyone figured out what medal will be awarded for Libya yet?

If ALLIED FORCE is any sort of precedent, my guess is GCS/GSM.

 

[The Bread Guy]

IMO it's not a big deal ref that patch.. I'm pretty sure the general public realize that bombs being dropped means bad guys are being killed in Libya.

Agree.  Odd how some don't like it clearly stated that militaries use killing as the final sanction.

Welcome home all who're back!

 

[brihard]

If ALLIED FORCE is any sort of precedent, my guess is GCS/GSM.

Ugh. I was sitting here thinking perhaps the OSM- how Allied Force didn't occur to me, I have no idea. Colour me stupid. Very good hypothesis on your part. It would be hard *not* to justify a campaign star for Libya with that in mind.

 

[Zoomie]

I believe the crews were told that they would be in the running for the SSM with LIBYA bar.

 

[aesop081]

Original message traffic when we deployed mentioned the NATO Non-Article 5 medal.

Last rumour i got was GCS/GCM depending on individual role.

 

[Infanteer]

Last rumour i got was GCS/GCM depending on individual role.

That makes the most sense, considering it was in the presence of an armed enemy.

It took a while, but the system works quite well - just do up a new ribbon and the medal is ready to go.

 

[brihard]

That makes the most sense, considering it was in the presence of an armed enemy.

It took a while, but the system works quite well - just do up a new ribbon and the medal is ready to go.

I like the historical parallel for a rack of stars as someone takes part in a number of different ops over the years.

 

[Wookilar]

I just don't know what to say about the shoulder patch "THAT OTHERS MAY KILL".
Do some feel that is good PR?

It seems to me a play on the SAR Tech motto "So Others May Live."

Wook

 

[The Bread Guy]

My, my, wherever could they have gone?

Five months after the armed uprising erupted in Libya, a new round of portable antiaircraft missiles — weapons that governments fear could be obtained by terrorists and then fired at civilian jetliners — have been slipping from storage bunkers captured by rebels.

In February, in the early stages of the uprising, large numbers of the missiles slipped from the hands of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government as the rebels established control over eastern Libya and the ammunition depots there. The leakage resumed recently with rebel gains here in the western mountains, which opened up new ammunition stores.

The new leakage of the missiles, which are of the same type that officials in other African nations have said have already been trafficked over Libya’s borders, underscores the organizational weakness of the forces opposed to Colonel Qaddafi; it also raises concerns that if more Qaddafi depots fall to the rebels, then further stocks of the weapons could become accessible to black markets.

Signs of the diversion are readily visible here, at an ammunition depot captured late last month from the Qaddafi forces after repeated NATO bombings.

On a recent day, 43 emptied wooden crates — long, thin and painted in dark green — had been left behind on the sand inside the entrance. The boxes had not been there during a visit to the same spot a few days before, and the weapons were gone.

The stenciled markings showed each crate had contained a pair of lightweight missiles called SA-7s — early Soviet versions of the same class of weapon as the better known American-made Stingers, which were used by Afghan fighters against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was not clear who had taken them. The rebel guards variously blamed Qaddafi forces and misinformed opposition fighters .... The president of Chad and officials in Algeria have been quoted since the war began as saying that Manpads diverted from Libya have traveled over their borders to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in North Africa. Neither Chad nor Algeria has publicly offered evidence for the claims, and (Andrew J. Shapiro, U.S. assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs) declined to comment on the matter ....

Source:  New York Times, 15 Jul 11

 

[dimsum]

It seems to me a play on the SAR Tech motto "So Others May Live."

It's the Air-to-Air Refuelling detachment, so the motto sounds appropriate.  Better than something like "we pass the gas."

 

[aesop081]

It's the Air-to-Air Refuelling detachment, so the motto sounds appropriate.  Better than something like "we pass the gas."

"You can't kick ass without tanker gas"

 

[SeaKingTacco]

"Save a$$, haul trash, pass gas"

The 435 Sqn, unofficial, motto.

 

[Zoomie]

It seems to me a play on the SAR Tech motto "So Others May Live."

This is exactly the case as 435 Sqn has two separate and distinct missions (for now) AAR and SAR - their crews don't mix and there is most definitely some inter-squadron rivalry.