{"id":422957,"date":"2011-05-12T18:41:12","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T18:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/"},"modified":"2011-05-12T18:41:12","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T18:41:12","slug":"libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Libyan rebels deny Misrata is under their control"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"186.511329628\">\n<div readability=\"8\">\n<p>Regime, opposition battle for Misrata<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A rebel spokesman disputes the claim that Misrata is &#8220;liberated&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Britain&#8217;s PM asks opposition to establish an office in London<\/li>\n<li>Government: At least two dead when rockets strike Gadhafi&#8217;s compound<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Tripoli, Libya (CNN)<\/strong> &#8212; The status of the besieged Libyan city of Misrata was in question Thursday, with representatives of the opposition Transitional National Council and rebels in the city giving different accounts of who controls the strategic town.<\/p>\n<p>Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, a spokesman for the council, told reporters in Benghazi on Thursday that all of Misrata has been &#8220;liberated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, two spokesmen for the Libyan rebels disputed that statement, saying forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were still in control of Misrata&#8217;s eastern gate, as well as the gate leading to the nearby town of Zlaitin, where clashes occurred Thursday but no casualties resulted.<\/p>\n<p>One spokesman, who asked to be identified only as Mohamed, said rebels are controlling Misrata&#8217;s airport and civil defense base, which are about 17 kilometers (10 miles) away from the city center.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, at least three people were killed Thursday when four rockets struck Gadhafi&#8217;s compound in Tripoli, a government spokesman told CNN.<\/p>\n<p>The Libyan government took journalists near the site of the blast, and smoke could be seen still rising from the compound.<\/p>\n<p>One rocket hit an administrative building that was knocked out of operation after it had been struck by NATO last month, government officials said. The same building was also hit in 1986 U.S. airstrikes. Two others rocket strikes hit open spaces and formed two craters.<\/p>\n<p>After the blasts, which could be heard in the center of Tripoli, sirens blared and at least two emergency vehicles sped toward the Bab al-Aziziya compound.<\/p>\n<p>Government officials said 27 people affected by the rocket strike were also brought to a hospital. Most seemed to be suffering from smoke inhalation.<\/p>\n<p>The Libyan government said another attack on the same compound April 30 had killed Gadhafi&#8217;s son Saif al-Arab Gadhafi and three of the leader&#8217;s grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>Libyan state television reported Thursday the North Korean Embassy in Tripoli was damaged in a NATO airstrike. But a NATO official denied that the embassy was targeted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen and am aware of media reports that there was damage to the North Korean Embassy, but we have no knowledge of possible collateral damage,&#8221; the official said. &#8220;We&#8217;re striking with precision and while the possibility of collateral damage will always exist, we&#8217;re going to great lengths to reduce such possibilities.&#8221; The embassy is located some 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the target that was struck, the official said.<\/p>\n<p>A death was reported in the city of Benghazi, the headquarters of the opposition.<\/p>\n<p>During a police check resulting in the arrest of five French nationals on Wednesday night in Benghazi, one French man was shot and later died that night in a Benghazi hospital, the French Foreign Ministry said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our representative on site is asking to meet our detained compatriots. He is staying in touch with local authorities to look into their situation,&#8221; the ministry said.<\/p>\n<p>NATO warplanes and missiles have been pounding Gadhafi&#8217;s forces since March, as Gadhafi&#8217;s troops try to quash a nearly 3-month-old revolt against his almost 42 years of rule.<\/p>\n<p>The NATO mission aims to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for the protection of civilians, and proactive political diplomacy is accompanying the daily bombardment by the alliance&#8217;s planes.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will meet at the White House on Friday to discuss the alliance&#8217;s role.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and others met with Mahmoud Gibril, president of the Transitional National Council&#8217;s executive bureau.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think everybody came away impressed by the seriousness of purpose, the articulate presentation of an agenda, and the commitment to democracy and to values and principles that I think our country could willingly and happily support,&#8221; Kerry said. &#8220;Minister Gibril was in fact quite encouraging about his sense of what the possibilities are in the days ahead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Also Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the Transitional National Council, Cameron&#8217;s office said in a statement. The prime minister invited the council to establish a formal office in London, and also said the British presence in Benghazi would be boosted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These steps continue our very clear intention to work with the council to ensure Libya has a safe and stable future, free from the tyranny of the Gadhafi regime,&#8221; Cameron said in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is impossible to imagine a real future for Libya with Gadhafi in power,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The council represents the future of Libya as much as Gadhafi represents its past.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As for Misrata, Shamsiddin Abdulmolah of the Transitional National Council said the airport in the southern part of the city had fallen to &#8220;revolutionaries&#8221; after opposition fighters in nearby Zlaitin joined their counterparts there.<\/p>\n<p>But government spokesman Ibrahim said government forces were in control of the airport and the seaport in Misrata. He said rebel forces had been there &#8220;for (a) short time and left.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The capture of the airport would be key for rebels fighting the Gadhafi forces, since it would provide an important entry point for humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n<p>Two months of fighting and the ongoing shelling of the Misrata port have prevented most aid ships from docking there, leaving the city &#8220;at the forefront&#8221; of humanitarian concerns, a top U.N. official told the Security Council this week.<\/p>\n<p>Marie Colvin, the Middle East correspondent for Britain&#8217;s Sunday Times, told CNN earlier that rebel forces defending the city from government troops were making &#8220;meter-by-meter&#8221; gains despite heavy shelling and rocket attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Units loyal to Gadhafi have been firing rockets and artillery shells into residential neighborhoods, leaving a nearby emergency room full of women, children and old men, she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The rebels are very much trying, at a minimum, to push back Gadhafi&#8217;s lines so he simply can&#8217;t do that,&#8221; Colvin said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Almost 750,000 people have fled the country amid the fighting, and 58,000 more are displaced within Libya, Valerie Amos, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said.<\/p>\n<p>At least 5,000 more are stranded at border crossings between Libya, Tunisia and Niger, Amos said.<\/p>\n<p>Others have tried to flee by sea, but one such attempt appears to have ended in disaster for hundreds of refugees as their ship capsized off the capital. Two other vessels disappeared, and the fate of those on board was not known.<\/p>\n<p>CNN&#8217;s Nima Elbagir, Barbara Starr, Jill Dougherty and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Continue Reading:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rss.cnn.com\/~r\/rss\/edition_africa\/~3\/6lRLpPSMTTI\/index.html\" title=\"Libyan rebels deny Misrata is under their control\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Libyan rebels deny Misrata is under their control<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Regime, opposition battle for Misrata STORY HIGHLIGHTS A rebel spokesman disputes the claim that Misrata is &#8220;liberated&#8221; Britain&#8217;s PM asks opposition to establish an office in London Government: At least two dead when rockets strike Gadhafi&#8217;s compound Tripoli, Libya (CNN) &#8212; The status of the besieged Libyan city of Misrata was in question Thursday, with representatives of the opposition Transitional National Council and rebels in the city giving different accounts of who controls the strategic town. Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, a spokesman for the council, told reporters in Benghazi on Thursday that all of Misrata has been &#8220;liberated.&#8221; However, two spokesmen for the Libyan rebels disputed that statement, saying forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were still in control of Misrata&#8217;s eastern gate, as well as the gate leading to the nearby town of Zlaitin, where clashes occurred Thursday but no casualties resulted. One spokesman, who asked to be identified only as Mohamed, said rebels are controlling Misrata&#8217;s airport and civil defense base, which are about 17 kilometers (10 miles) away from the city center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-422957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Libyan rebels deny Misrata is under their control - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Libyan rebels deny Misrata is under their control - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Regime, opposition battle for Misrata STORY HIGHLIGHTS A rebel spokesman disputes the claim that Misrata is &quot;liberated&quot; Britain&#039;s PM asks opposition to establish an office in London Government: At least two dead when rockets strike Gadhafi&#039;s compound Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- The status of the besieged Libyan city of Misrata was in question Thursday, with representatives of the opposition Transitional National Council and rebels in the city giving different accounts of who controls the strategic town. Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, a spokesman for the council, told reporters in Benghazi on Thursday that all of Misrata has been &quot;liberated.&quot; However, two spokesmen for the Libyan rebels disputed that statement, saying forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were still in control of Misrata&#039;s eastern gate, as well as the gate leading to the nearby town of Zlaitin, where clashes occurred Thursday but no casualties resulted. One spokesman, who asked to be identified only as Mohamed, said rebels are controlling Misrata&#039;s airport and civil defense base, which are about 17 kilometers (10 miles) away from the city center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Libyan rebels deny Misrata is under their control\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-12T18:41:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/\"},\"wordCount\":1126,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/\",\"name\":\"Libyan rebels deny Misrata is under their control - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-12T18:41:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Libyan rebels deny Misrata is under their control - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/12\/libyan-rebels-deny-misrata-is-under-their-control\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Libyan rebels deny Misrata is under their control - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Regime, opposition battle for Misrata STORY HIGHLIGHTS A rebel spokesman disputes the claim that Misrata is \"liberated\" Britain's PM asks opposition to establish an office in London Government: At least two dead when rockets strike Gadhafi's compound Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- The status of the besieged Libyan city of Misrata was in question Thursday, with representatives of the opposition Transitional National Council and rebels in the city giving different accounts of who controls the strategic town. Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, a spokesman for the council, told reporters in Benghazi on Thursday that all of Misrata has been \"liberated.\" However, two spokesmen for the Libyan rebels disputed that statement, saying forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were still in control of Misrata's eastern gate, as well as the gate leading to the nearby town of Zlaitin, where clashes occurred Thursday but no casualties resulted. 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