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Gadhafi's Forces Take Key City Back From Opposition

By Mark Memmott
Published March 12, 2011 at 6:15 AM MST
An abandoned, bullet-ridden car belonging to retreating rebel forces sat on a road leading to the Libyan town of Ras Lanuf earlier today (March 12, 2011).
Marco Longari
/
AFP/Getty Images
An abandoned, bullet-ridden car belonging to retreating rebel forces sat on a road leading to the Libyan town of Ras Lanuf earlier today (March 12, 2011).

"Moammar Gadhafi's regime drove out pockets of rebel fighters who were keeping a tenuous hold around oil facilities in a key port city," The Associated Press reports, "showing growing strength Saturday after days of relentless shelling against protesters turned rebels."

The wire service adds that "Gen. Abdel-Fattah Younis, who was the country's interior minister before he defected to the rebel side, acknowledged Saturday that Gadhafi's forces now control both the town and the oil refinery in Ras Lanuf, 380 miles southeast of the capital, Tripoli."

According to the BBC, "rebel leaders told reporters that their fighters had been driven 20km (12 miles) from the outskirts of Ras Lanuf. Government forces now control the town and its oil refinery."

Al-Jazeera's headline: " Libyan Rebels In Retreat."

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Mark Memmott
Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
See stories by Mark Memmott