LIBYA: Transitional National Council Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni opens Western Mountains air strip which will allow rebels to bring supplies to remote mountain areas

Record ID: 343540

  • Title: LIBYA: Transitional National Council Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni opens Western Mountains air strip which will allow rebels to bring supplies to remote mountain areas
  • Date: 13th July 2011
  • Summary: ZINTAN, LIBYA (JULY 12, 2011) (REUTERS) NATIONAL TRANSITION COUNCIL MINISTER FOR OIL AND FINANCE ALI TARHOUNI OUT OF MILITARY COUNCIL OF ZINTAN (SOUNDBITE) (English) MINISTER OF OIL AND FINANCE ALI TARHOUNI, SAYING: "I am bringing some help with me monetary and fuel, just to see my brothers and sisters. And I am hoping that you will hear very good news in the next 24-48
  • Embargoed: 28th July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVAA8WLO2ZK082QKYTS9Z6XJMGMW
  • Story Text: A senior minister in the Libyan rebel Transitional National Council opened an airfield on Tuesday (July 12) linking the rebel capital Benghazi with the remote Western Mountain stronghold south of Tripoli, and promised a military breakthrough within days.
    Ali Tarhouni, oil and finance minister in the council opposing leader Muammar Gaddafi, arrived and departed by air at the Rhebat air strip, a remote stretch of mountain highway, where a giant yellow arrow painted on the tarmac marks out the runway, next to a blue and white shack flying the rebel flag.
    He told Reuters he was bringing aid to the mountains, a region where the rebels have made significant military gains in the last few weeks against Gaddafi's forces and are preparing for another major advance.
    "I am hoping you will hear very good news in the next 24-48 hours on all fronts, economic, military, all fronts."
    Asked later to clarify, he said he said he was expecting Gaddafi to be driven from power by the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins in about two weeks.
    He repeated calls from the rebel council for Western countries to send economic aid, including frozen Libyan government funds, which he said had been repeatedly promised at international conferences but not yet made available.
    "We appreciate tremendously the political help that we get from the United States, France, Italy and it is very crucial for us. The problem I have that I have is that this political help has not translated into economic help."
    The air strip could play a big role in resupplying the mountains - once seen as a minor front in the five-month-old rebellion to topple Gaddafi, but increasingly seen as a strategic battlefield as the rebels press eastward from the Tunisian border towards the southern outskirts of the capital.
    "The importance of this airport is bringing humanitarian aid and military supplies for our rebel brothers... in the Nafusa Mountains," said Mohammed al-Bujdidi, the rebel forces commander in the airport's vicinity.
    He said it was the third time the landing strip had been used, although it was the first time it has been publically acknowledged.
    Rebels in the mountains seized the village of al-Qawalish from Gaddafi's forces last week and are pushing towards the town of Gharyan which controls the main highway south of the capital. The previous week, the mountain fighters drove Gaddafi's troops back to the village of Bir Ghanam on another road southeast of Tripoli.
    The advances mean large parts of the mountain area are now outside the range of Gaddafi forces' artillery, allowing some degree of ordinary life to return to the region, although food and fuel are scarce.
    In addition to their advances in the mountains, rebels are also pushing towards Tripoli along the coast road from their stronghold in the port of Misrata.
    They have the assistance of NATO forces, which have been bombing Gaddafi-loyalist targets since March but have yet to deliver a decisive blow.
    The Libyan leader describes the rebels as terrorists and criminals, and says the Western military intervention is a colonialist scheme to steal Libya's oil.
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