Libyan ports still main battleground

At the weekend, rebel fighters claimed the oil port of Zawiyah, in a bid to control a vital transportation route into Libya’s capital. If this were true, then the rebels could be seen to have encircled Tripoli’s arteries.

However, a counter claim by pro-Gaddafi forces is that the army has started wiping out the rebel forces inside Misrata, a city some 200 km east of Tripoli. The spokesperson also claimed rebel forces in Zawiyah were weak and that it was only a matter of time before their defeat.

Control of the port of Brega, south east of Tripoli, has been shifting backwards and forwards between rebels and Gaddafi’s forces, and at present it is difficult to know which side holds it. However, a Scud missile from pro-Gaddafi forces was fired early this week, landing in the desert outside the port, the first of the conflict and condemned by NATO.

In Syria, there are reports of heavy machine gun fire continuing in the port of Latakia, which is the target of a naval offensive by government forces.