So Much For Libyan Rebel Oil Exports: Gaddafi Forces Destroy Last Fuel Tanks Under Rebel Control; NATO Land Offensive Now Unavoidable

by Tyler Durden
05/07/2011 21:00 -0400
67 comments

And so the badly thought out experiment to supply Libyan rebels with a central bank, to be used to fund an "alternative" fuel industry comes to a prompt and fiery end. Reuters reports that "Libyan government forces destroyed four fuel storage tanks and set several others ablaze in rebel-held Misrata, dealing a blow to the port city's ability to withstand a government siege, rebels said on Saturday." Not surprisingly this fits in perfectly with the assumption first postulated by Zero Hedge that Gaddafi will destroy his entire oil infrastructure before letting it fall into "enemy" hands. http://twitter.com/#!/zerohedge/status/ ... 3674642433 This likely marks the end of the Libyan rebellion and will force NATO to launch a land offensive or suffer a crushing blow to its already shaky reputation as globocop, especially now that the US is in theory at least, out of the air campaign against Gaddafi. Which means that the boots on the ground are soon coming. Alas, it will not be the marines in the Kearsarge. As the below naval update map indicates, the Kearsarge has been relieved and now has left the theater of operations, however replaced with LHD 5 Bataan. http://www.bataan.navy.mil/



More from Reuters:

Misrata, the last remaining city in the west under rebel control, has been under siege for more than two months and has witnessed some of the war's fiercest fighting.

Rebels gave varying accounts of the bombardment but said it hit fuel used for export as well as domestic consumption.

"Four (fuel) tanks were totally destroyed and a huge fire erupted which spread now to the other four. We cannot extinguish it because we do not have the right tools," rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan told Reuters.

"Now the city will face a major problem. Those were the only sources of fuel for the city. These tanks could have kept the city for three months with enough fuel," he said by telephone.

The video of the burning tanks can be seen below:

[b] Video: استهداÙ