Reply #75: Libyan Rebels Seize Control of Misurata’s Airport

[Iterate]

Libyan Rebels Seize Control of Misurata’s Airport
C.J. Chivers/The New York Times

Published: May 11, 2011

MISURATA, Libya — Rebels in the contested western city of Misurata stormed the city’s airport on Wednesday afternoon, swarming over the grounds from the south and east and reclaiming it from the military of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Seizing the airport in Misurata, Libya’s third-largest city, which has been under siege for nearly two months, marked one of the most significant rebel victories in the Libyan conflict.

The airport and its approaches were the last remaining pieces of significant terrain in the city to be controlled by the Qaddafi soldiers.

With these soldiers pushed back, the western area of Misurata appeared by nightfall to be out of range of the most common of the Qaddafi forces’ heavy weapons, including self-propelled artillery, Grad rockets and 120-millimeter mortars, with which the loyalists have fired cluster munitions.

more Chivers...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/world/africa/12libya.html?pagewanted=1&hp