The Battle For Zawiya

You may have noticed that I've not been reporting on events in Libya in either much detail or in a timely fashion. Partly this is because it's very difficult to get accurate information out of the country and partly it is because the information that is available is really depressing. Mainly though it's because I don't want to get into playing the role of the armchair general who tells both sides what the other is planning before they do it as this is likely to only grind the conflict in stalemate and kill lots of people.

However I am very concerned about the situation in Zawiya in the west of Libya. Although Libyan government forces have been in effective control of the town for the best part of the last two weeks a very small number of rebels have continued to occupy the very centre of the town. As a result over the last five days there have been intense battles as government and rebel forces fight each other for what is little more then 1 kmsq of land. Yesterday (9/3/11) it was confirmed that government forces had pushed the last of the rebels out of the town but today (10/3/11) there have been unsubstantiated rumours circulating that the rebels had retaken the towns central square.

Apart from the combined casualty list of around 80 killed per day the problem I have with the Zawiya battle is that the rebels military command based in Benghazi know full well that they have already lost this war. However rather then doing the decent thing and telling the rebels in Zawiya to surrender they have told them to fight to the last man. Their plan is that by drawing the government forces into the trap of a lengthy battle for Zawiya the rebels can do as much damage as possible to the government forces while buying time both for them to boost their defences and hopefully hold out long enough for the international community to mobilise to intervene although at this point I think Britain and it's French lapdog are the only ones still seriously considering that idea.

While I understand that having pockets of resistance behind the front line is a definite military problem I think that rather then trying to pound Zawiya into the ground the Libyan government might want to consider concentrating their efforts on taking prisoners as they advance further east.

Also tomorrow (11/3/11) there will be an emergency meeting of European Union (EU) leaders to discuss the Libya situation. Even combined the EU countries do not have the military capacity to intervene in Libya so while I understand why Britain has called the meeting I'm at a loss as why the other EU leaders have agreed to turn up.