Libyan Government Loyalist And Rebel Forces Clash Over Oil Refinery

As if things weren’t bad enough in Libya…

Greed has now reared it’s ugly head.

Libyan government forces launched a counterattack against a key oil facility and air base in rebel-controlled eastern Libya on Wednesday morning as Moammar Kadafi vowed to “fight until the last man and woman.”

The attack on Port Brega, about 100 miles south of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, was the first offensive by Kadafi loyalists in eastern Libya since the region fell to rebel fighters 10 days ago. It triggered an escalation in the conflict as hundreds of untrained young men and poorly equipped soldiers stormed out of Benghazi to help rebels try to repulse the government advance.

State-run TV claimed that the government seized the huge Sirte Oil Co. complex in Port Brega, as well as a nearby air base. Rebel commanders in Benghazi said their fighters drove Kadafi’s men back and took the area. But Ahmed Jerksi, Sirte Oil manager, told the Associated Press that Kadafi forces had retaken control of the facility.

With the area engulfed in fighting, reporters who drove down the coastal highway were unable to sort out the conflicting claims.

A government warplane attacked a major weapons depot outside Ajdabiya, an opposition-controlled city 50 miles north of Port Brega. The attack appeared to miss the depot — at least the fourth time in the last 10 days that airstrikes there have failed.

Kadafi, in a combative speech to loyalists and the foreign media in Tripoli, said he had ordered the airstrike to prevent opposition “terrorists” from using the weapons.

Rebels reported a second airstrike against opposition fighters battling government forces near a university along the coast in Port Brega.

Two U.S. warships entered the Suez Canal bound for the Mediterranean, and Western governments were discussing a possible no-fly zone over Libya in support of the opposition.

Oh, oil is legitimately at stake now?? It’s about to be Desert Storm 2 up in this b*tch!

And Gadhafi’s ready.

Kadafi warned of civil war, saying, “This will lead to a bloody war and thousands of Libyans will die if America and NATO enter Libya.”

Source/Photo: Luis Sinco