20110313
xinhua

TRIPOLI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan military said Sunday that its troops were pressing onward toward the eastern port city of Benghazi, a key stronghold of rebel forces.

After retaking the western city of Zawiya and the eastern cities of Bin Jawad, Ras Lanuf and Brega, government troops were marching toward other eastern cities, including Benghazi, the country's second largest city, a military spokesman announced at a press conference in Tripoli.

During the clashes, dozens of insurgents had been killed and dozens of others arrested, according to the spokesman, who also denied accusations that government forces opened fire at civilians.

The reason why government forces had not launched any large-scale operation on Benghazi, said the spokesman, was that as rebels were scattered at different corners of the city, any major offensive would inevitably victimize innocent civilians.

Meanwhile, the spokesman blamed some armed groups and al-Qaida for attacking military facilities and police stations as well as occupying and looting weapons depots of the military.

Also at the press conference, Libyan vice Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim disclosed a list of al-Qaida members who had been arrested while taking part in the armed rebellion.

He said that government forces captured a senior commander of al-Qaida's Mauritania branch when taking back Zawiya, some 40 km west of Tripoli, and that Mauritanian authorities had requested his extradition.

Libyan authorities declared Saturday that government forces had recaptured Brega, a key oil-exporting port and an important base of the country's petrochemical industry some 850 km east of Tripoli.

A Xinhua reporter saw that the local port and petrochemical plants had resumed normal operation.