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Defense News - France / Libya
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| Wednesday,
June 29, 2011, 11:04 AM |
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| France
decided to proceed directly parachuting of weapons for the
rebel forces in Libya. |
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Blocked
since a few months in Misrata and on the East front in Libya,
in Brega, driven out by the Kaddafi forces of the coastal
road which goes in Tunisia, in the West, the Libyan rebels
on the other hand progressed these last weeks to the south
of Tripoli, in the mountains of Djebel Nefousa. They owe
it with an action of France which was secret until now:
the parachuting of weapons “in significant amount”
to the Berber tribes of this area entered in war against
Kaddafi government.
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The Libyan rebels are only armed with old Russian made weapons.
France wants to equip the Libyan rebels with weapons able
to fight effectively the Kaddafi armed forces.
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According to Paris, this Southern front
constitutes from now on one of the best hopes of the Western
coalition “to still make the junction” with
the rebel movements which work in secret in the capital
and to cause a rising of Tripoli against the clan of Kaffafi.
Noting, at the beginning of May, the military risk of
dead end, France decided to proceed directly parachuting
of weapons in the Djebel Nefousa: rocket launcher, assault
rifles, machine-guns and especially anti-tank
missiles Milan. Up to that point, the weapons
conveyed to the rebels came from Qatar and other emirates
of the Gulf. They were convoyed by plane in Benghazi,
home base of the National council of transition (CNT)
to the East, then by boat to the port of Misrata, coastal
town which is under the fire of Kaddafi forces.
If the French Army decided to be implied without intermediaries
- and the co-operation of its allies, even British - in
the armament of the rebels in the South, it is “because
there was no other way of proceeding”, say a high
level commander.
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