RAS LANOUF, Libya - Libyan warplanes launched fresh airstrikes on rebel positions around a key oil port Monday, trying to block the opposition fighters from advancing toward Muammar Qaddafi's stronghold in the capital, Tripoli.
Rebels in the area said they can take on Qaddafi's elite ground forces, but are outgunned if he uses his air power.
"We don't want a foreign military intervention, but we do want a no-fly zone," said rebel fighter Ali Suleiman. He added that the rebels can take on "the rockets and the tanks, but not Qaddafi's air force."
Libya appears to be sliding toward a civil war that could drag out for weeks, or even months, as rebels try to oust Qaddafi after 41 years. Resorting to heavy use of air attacks signaled the regime's concern that it needed to check the advance of the rebel force toward Sirte — Qaddafi's hometown and stronghold.
Anti-Qaddafi forces would get a massive morale boost if they captured Sirte, and it would clear a major obstacle on the march toward the gates of Tripoli.
There were no casualties in Monday's airstrike on Ras Lanouf, which came one day after pro-regime forces pounded opposition fighters with helicopter gunships, artillery and rockets to stop the rebels' rapid advance toward Tripoli.
Mohamad Samir, an army colonel fighting with the rebels, said his forces are expecting reinforcements from the east.
The uprising against Qaddafi, which began Feb. 15, is already longer and much bloodier than the relatively quick revolts that overthrew the longtime authoritarian leaders of neighboring Egypt and Tunisia.
The government in Tripoli has virtually declared victory, but the reality may be a stalemate with rebel forces in control in the east and the Qaddafi regime re-establishing control elsewhere, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips.
The pockets of rebel resistance are getting increasingly desperate. In Zawiya, rebels occupy the center of town but are surrounded by government forces. They face more frequent attacks and have less ammunition and fewer fighters, reports Phillips.
A government spokesman, Abdel-Majid al-Dursi, denied rumors that there had been an assassination attempt against Qaddafi, saying the claims are "baseless rumors." The speculation started Sunday, when residents in the capital awoke before dawn to the crackle of unusually heavy and sustained gunfire.
Hundreds if not thousands of people have died since Libya's uprising began, although tight restrictions on media make it near impossible to get an accurate tally. More than 200,000 people have fled the country, most of them foreign workers. The exodus is creating a humanitarian crisis across the border with Tunisia — another North African country in turmoil after an uprising in January that ousted its longtime leader.
The turmoil is being felt more broadly still in the form of rising oil prices. Libya's oil production has been seriously crippled by the unrest.
The conflict in Libya took a turn late last week when government opponents, backed by mutinous army units and armed with weaponry seized from storehouses, went on the offensive. At the same time, pro-Qaddafi forces have conducted counteroffensives to try to retake the towns and oil ports the rebels have captured since they moved out of the rebel-held east.
An opposition force estimated at 500 to 1,000 fighters has been cutting a path west toward Tripoli. On the way, they secured control of two important oil ports at Brega and Ras Lanouf.
In and around the government-held town of Bin Jawwad, on the road to Sirte, pro-regime forces were running patrols Monday and there were minor reports of skirmishes with rebels on the outskirts. On Sunday, battles there killed eight people and wounded 59, said Ibrahim Said, deputy director of Ajdabiya hospital.
If the rebels continue to advance, even slowly, Qaddafi's heavy dependence on air power could prompt the West to try to hurriedly enforce a no-fly zone over the country. The U.N. has already imposed sanctions against Libya, and the U.S. has moved military forces closer to its shores to back up its demand that Qaddafi step down.
Enforcing a no-fly zone could take weeks to organize, however, and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has noted that it must be preceded by a military operation to take out Libya's air defenses. British Foreign Minister William Hague said Sunday that a no-fly zone over Libya is still in an early stage of planning and ruled out the use of ground forces.
There is no sign that a U.S. or NATO-imposed no-fly zone is imminent, though it will undoubtedly be on the table when Defense Secretary Robert Gates attends a NATO defense ministers meeting on Thursday, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin.
Qaddafi's use of fixed wing and rotary aircraft is having "limited effect," a Pentagon official told Martin. The attacks seem to be going "against fortified rebel positions" as opposed to civilians, although the president has said Qaddafi needs to stop using violence against his own people, without distinguishing between rebels and civilians. Some of the flights are for logistical purposes and Qaddafi is actually using aircraft less now than he was a few days ago.
As fighting across Libya grew more fierce, the international community appeared to be struggling to put military muscle behind its demands for Qaddafi to give up power.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon spoke to Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa on Sunday, and called for an end to hostilities, according to a U.N. statement, which said Kusa agreed to the immediate dispatch of a humanitarian assessment team to Tripoli.
Valerie Amos, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in a statement that the Benghazi Red Crescent reported that Misrata was under attack by government forces.
"Humanitarian organizations need urgent access now," she said. "People are injured and dying and need help immediately."
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler, has discretely begun contacts with Libya's provisional transitional national council to find out about the rebels' intentions.
Suleiman, the rebel fighter, said his forces are waiting for reinforcements in Ras Lanouf.
"The orders are to stay here and guard the refinery, because oil is what makes the world go round," Suleiman said.
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