NATO Says Strikes Killed Rebels; Oil Output Gap May Persist

NATO confirmed its airstrikes mistakenly killed Libyan rebels using tanks against Muammar Qaddafi’s forces near the eastern oil port of Brega, as anti- government fighters in the besieged western city of Misrata battled to hold their positions under heavy fire.

A North Atlantic Treaty Organization commander said two of its strikes hit tanks operated by rebels April during clashes northeast of Brega. Rear Admiral Russell Harding countered criticism from the rebels, saying that coalition forces hadn’t previously seen rebels operating tanks, which have been used by Qaddafi’s army to attack civilians.

“It is not for us -- trying to protect civilians of whatever persuasion -- to improve communications with those rebel forces,” Harding, the deputy commander of the NATO mission, told reporters yesterday in Naples, Italy. He offered no apology, though NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen later said: “I strongly regret the loss of life.”

The rebels’ six-week drive to topple Qaddafi’s 42-year rule has reached a military impasse as regime forces outgun the opposition and protect their military hardware, such as tanks and armored vehicles, from NATO jets by moving it into cities. Clashes continued in Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, where rebels have been fighting to keep government forces from controlling the critical road leading to the port, the Associated Press reported.
Oil Rises

Oil output from Libya has dropped by about 1.3 million barrels a day to a “trickle,” the Paris-based International Energy Agency said last month. Oil production would still be less than a third of its pre-conflict level even if the rebels took control of the country’s oil fields, Nomura Holdings Inc. said in a report.

Crude oil climbed above $112 in New York for the first time in 30 months. Crude oil for May delivery rose $2.49 to $112.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since Sept. 22, 2008. Futures advanced 4.5 percent this week and are 32 percent higher than a year ago.

Elsewhere in the region, Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday ruled out mediation by Persian Gulf countries that have offered to seek a compromise between his regime and a growing protest movement. Hundreds of thousands protested against Saleh in the capital, Sana’a, and in the southern city of Taiz security forces fired bullets and tear gas at a funeral procession, Hussein al Suhaili, an activist, said by telephone.
Syrian Demonstrators Killed

In Syria, authorities cracked down on a demonstration yesterday that drew tens of thousands in the southwestern city of Daraa. Witnesses and human rights activists said at least 25 people were killed and hundreds injured when the security forces fired on demonstrators, the Associated Press reported, while state TV said 19 members of the security forces were killed by gunmen.

In Libya, NATO jets have struck 23 targets in the last two days, including an air-defense facility near the Qaddafi stronghold of Sirte, Harding said. The alliance has hit T-72 tanks, armored vehicles, rocket launchers and ammunition dumps as its operations “steadily increase,” he said.

Rebel officials have complained that NATO isn’t doing enough to hit government forces. Contrary to Harding’s description, the number of NATO “strike sorties,” those looking for targets, declined to 54 on April 7 from 73 a day earlier. The total number of aircraft missions, including those enforcing the no-fly zone, declined to 155 from 164.
Changing Qaddafi Tactics

Harding said the alliance is grappling with changing tactics by the regime, whose forces have taken to driving civilian vehicles, and by the confusion on the ground that makes it difficult to distinguish between pro- and anti-Qaddafi troops and civilians. He cited running battles on the highway between Brega and Ajdabiya.

“The situation in the area is still very fluid, with tanks and other vehicles moving in different directions, making it very difficult to distinguish who may be operating them,” he said. “If someone wants to define that as a stalemate, that’s fine.”

The U.S. Treasury said yesterday that it has imposed financial sanctions on Libya’s prime minister, Ali al-Mahmoudi Al Baghdadi, its oil minister, finance minister, Qaddafi’s chief of staff, the director of the internal security office, and two groups associated with Qaddafi’s children, the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation and the Waatasemu Charity Association.
Mourners

Crowds rallied in the rebel stronghold Benghazi to mourn those killed in the Brega strike. At least five fighters were killed and more than 20 injured, AP said.

U.S. Army General Carter Ham, who commanded the opening phase of the allied military operation, told a U.S. Senate committee April 7 that the conflict is in a stalemate and the use of NATO air power is “increasingly problematic.” He cited the rebel-held city of Misrata as the main failure of NATO policy, saying air strikes haven’t been able to end the siege.

The situation in Misrata poses a challenge to NATO’s mandate to protect civilians. Fighting between Qaddafi’s forces and rebels in the city was “heavy” yesterday, according to Agence France-Presse.
‘Fear and Dead Bodies’

Former Libyan Energy Minister Omar Fathi bin Shatwan, who fled to Malta on a fishing boat April 1, described Misrata in an interview April 7 as a city where “there is no food or medicines, there is nothing but fear and dead bodies all over the place.”

An aid ship reached the city’s port April 7 and its cargo of food, medicine and water purification equipment was unloaded yesterday, according to an e-mail from Patrick McCormick, a spokesman for UNICEF, which provided medical supplies. The port area was reported to be secure enough to unload the cargo, according to Naeema al-Gasseer, a crisis operations manager with the UN’s World Health Organization.

Two surgeons from the Arab Medical Union, who arrived on the ship, performed five operations yesterday at a medical center now provided with electricity and water, al-Gasseer said in an e-mail.

A vessel chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross is scheduled to arrive today, and a Turkish charity planned to send an aid ship to the city next week, AP reported.
Oil Fields

Foreign workers have fled from Libya’s oil fields since anti-government protests broke out in mid-February and escalated into armed conflict, meaning the country’s oil output would remain below a third of its previous level in the immediate aftermath of a cease-fire, Michael Lo, a Hong Kong-based analyst, wrote in the Nomura report.

“If all the Libyan national oil company-operated fields were to join the rebels and production goes into full swing, total production can likely reach only 450,000 barrels a day, 28.5 percent of pre-crisis levels,” according to Lo.

“The remaining fields were operated by independent oil companies, who have fled the country,” he wrote. “The shortage of human capital makes it difficult to bring all the fields back into production.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to convene a meeting of representatives of Arab, African, Muslim and European nations in Cairo on April 14 to “enhance coordination” of efforts to end the conflict in Libya, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said yesterday. Also, NATO foreign ministers are scheduled to meet April 14 and 15 in Berlin to discuss Libya. The Libya “contact group” of nations participating in a broader alliance is due to hold its first meeting next week in Doha, Qatar.