Gaddafi’s forces in gun battle with Tunisian troops

Gaddafi’s forces in gun battle with Tunisian troops

Libya’s conflict has spilled beyond its borders, as forces loyal to Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, crossed into neighbouring Tunisia and fought a gun battle with Tunisian troops in a frontier town on Friday.

Pro-Gaddafi forces fired shells into the town of Dehiba, damaging buildings and injuring at least one resident, and a group of them drove into the town in a truck in pursuit of anti-Gaddafi rebels.

Border battle

The Libyan government troops were chasing rebels, who fled into Tunisia from the restive Western Mountains region of Libya, in the past few days after Gaddafi forces overran the border post the rebels had earlier seized.

While the Libyan forces were battling in Dehiba, the rebels who are fighting to end more than four decades of Gaddafi's rule announced they had seized back the border post.

Rebels seized the post a week ago, as it controls the only road link which their comrades in Libya's Western Mountains have with the outside world, making them rely otherwise on rough tracks for supplies of food, fuel and medicine.

After weeks of advances and retreats by rebel and government forces along the Mediterranean coast, fighting has settled into a pattern of clashes and skirmishes.

Some of Gaddafi's soldiers were killed and wounded in the fighting in Dehiba. Two residents told reporters that shells had fallen on the town from pro-Gaddafi positions across the border in Libya.
A Libyan rebel said that anti-Gaddafi fighters had retaken control of the border crossing near Dehiba. The main crossing into Libya, two hours' drive to the north, remains firmly under Libyan government control.

"Right here at this point I'm looking at the new (rebel) flag flying up there at the border. The rebels have got control of it, the freedom fighters. We're just in the process of opening it up," rebel Akram el Muradi said.

One of the residents called Ali said that the fighting and shelling had stopped.

"The Tunisian army is combing the town. We have no idea about the fate of Gaddafi's forces there because the Tunisian army closed the gates to the town and nobody is allowed to enter," Ali said.

Tunisia's government late on Thursday issued a statement condemning incursions by Libyan forces after shells fired by Gaddafi loyalists fell into the desert near the border.

Friday's clashes marked the first time that Libyan government ground forces had crossed the border and entered a Tunisian town.

Oil shipments

Oil traders in Asia said on Friday that a tanker with the first major oil shipment from rebel-held east Libya is expected to arrive in China next week.

The Liberia-registered tanker Equator, reported to be carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude, left the rebel-held east Libyan port of Marsa el Hariga three weeks ago, carrying fuel exports vital to financing the uprising against Gaddafi.

The buyer of the cargo was not clear as trading house Vitol, which is managing the shipment, has not commented on its Libyan transactions. Traders said that finding a buyer was not straightforward due to concerns over legal complications related to the ownership of oil and international sanctions.

REUTERS/Williams