There are reports coming out of Libya this afternoon that Libyan rebels have been using their own MiG-23's, sinking two of Gaddafi's ships and damaging a third. The planes have also been used to attack Libyan army tanks in the towns of Brega and Ajdabiya, which had recently been taken by the Libyan army. The rebels having air power could quickly change the dynamics of the rebellion.
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Libyan website reports rebels sink Gaddafi ships
(Reuters) - An opposition Libyan online newspaper on Tuesday said a rebel MiG 23 warplane and a helicopter sank two pro-Gaddafi warships off the eastern coast near the front line of land battles at Adjabiyah.
The Brnieq website quoted an unnamed air force officer at the Benina airbase in rebel-held Benghazi as saying the aircraft also bombed an unspecified number of tanks near Brega and Ajdebiya. Those two towns fell to troops of Muammar Gaddafi on Tuesday as his army advanced eastwards toward Benghazi.
It was not clear where the two aircraft took off from. The airbase at Benghazi switched to rebel control when the opposition took charge of the city and several air force officers have been among military men who joined the opposition.
(Reporting by Souhail Karam, writing by Tom Heneghan; Editing by Matthew Jones)
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Rebels claim key Libyan city after assault from Qaddafi forces
While Qaddafi's forces attacked Ajdabiya, a key crossroads in the battle for control in eastern Libya, a rebel leader said today the city remains 'in the hands of the revolution.'
By Dan Murphy, Staff writer
Benghazi, Libya A military spokesman for the rebel government in Benghazi, Libya, says the situation for the forces seeking to oust Muammar Qaddafi isn’t as grim as it appeared to many earlier today.
Mr. Qaddafi’s forces rained destruction on Ajdabiya today with fighter jets and rockets, and witnesses in the afternoon saw hundreds of militiamen fleeing the city, which is a key crossroads in the battle for control of eastern Libya.
By late afternoon, some of Qaddafi’s forces were seen in the city. But Khaled el-Sayeh, a spokesman for Abdel Fatah Younes, a former Qaddafi loyalist now in overall command of rebel forces, says the town remains in rebel hands.
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Sayeh said that many rebel forces did withdraw from a line just west of the city under sustained aerial attack earlier today, and withdrew on the coastal highway without going through town. But he said those retreating forces were not joined by the bulk of the rebellion’s militia in the city proper.
He added that the rebellion has started to fly fighter jets of its own, and that they helped drive Qaddafi’s jets away from Ajdabiya today. He said the rebels are still requesting a no-fly zone from the international community. “The Colonel (Qaddafi) uses his air force indiscriminately, against civilians. That’s why we’re insisting on a no-fly zone,” he said.