TRIPOLI, (Reuters) – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son told rebels yesterday they faced a full-scale assault to crush their three-week-old uprising as troops, tanks and warplanes punched into the rebel-held east of the country.
“It’s time for action. We are moving now,” Saif al-Islam told Reuters in an interview. “Time is out now…we gave them two weeks (for negotiations).”
As he spoke, Gaddafi’s forces intensified their counter-attack on the insurgent heartland, bombarding rebel positions in the oil port of Ras Lanuf. Warplanes also hit Brega, another rebel-held oil hub further east.
Gaddafi forces and rebels also fought in the streets of the western town of Zawiyah, close to Tripoli, which has changed hands several times in
