Reply #9: Reuters: Rebels say Gaddafi troops enter Benghazi

[Turborama]

By Mohammed Abbas
BENGHAZI, Libya | Sat Mar 19, 2011 11:32am GMT

(Reuters) - Rebels said forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi stormed Benghazi on Saturday and they appealed to the West to launch military strikes to halt the advance of the Libyan leader's troops on their eastern bastion.

Gaddafi's tanks, artillery and warplanes, one of which was shot down, bombarded the city, rebels said, a day after Libya's foreign minister announced a cease-fire following a U.N. resolution that authorised Western military intervention.

The Libyan government denied it was attacking Benghazi, said it was respecting the cease-fire and accused rebels of raiding villages and towns to draw in the West.

"They have entered Benghazi from the west. Where are the Western powers? They said they could strike within hours," Khalid al-Sayeh, a rebel military spokesman, told Reuters.

Much more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/19/uk-libya-east-idUKTRE72I0UB20110319