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IPFS News Link • Revolutions, Rebellions & Uprisings

Libyan Rebels Seize Control of Misurata’s Airport

• http://www.nytimes.com/
 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, a city that has been under siege for nearly two months, represented one of the most significant rebel victories in the Libyan conflict and a stiff military and public-relations blow to the Qaddafi government. The airport and its approaches were the last remaining pieces of terrain in the city to be controlled by 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, which loyalists have used to fire cluster munitions.


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