#Zawiya Picture of FFs driving up to the Zawiyah Oil Refinery

@emmaomo2011emmaomo

#Libya #Feb17 Pic of FF in #Zawiya Refinerytwitpic.com/67zflf

ZAWIYAH, Libya — Rebel fighters gained complete control of the oil refinery in Zawiyah on Thursday — just a half hour’s drive from the Tripoli, the country’s capital — routing government soldiers after days of battle and advancing into other parts of this strategic port city still controlled by loyalists of Libya’s increasingly isolated leader, Col.Muammar el-Qaddafi. Employees at the large refinery complex here, which appeared to be undamaged by the fighting, said the remaining pockets of Qaddafi soldiers who had been defending the refinery were driven out overnight. A rebel commander said 5,000 rebel fighters were deployed around the refinery. Rebel sentries manning checkpoints could be seen on a drive around the complex on Thursday, and the discarded green uniforms of Libyan national army soldiers littered the grounds — signs of desertion by the Qaddafi defenders. 

The fight for Zawiyah represents a possibly decisive moment in the six-month-old rebellion against Colonel Qaddafi, the quixotic leader whose four-decade-old rule in Libya has been challenged by the tide of antigovernment uprisings that have spread through the Arab world, upending the autocrats of Tunisia and Egypt and threatening regimes elsewhere, including Syria and Yemen.