Gadhafi forces attack oil refinery killing 12— NTC spokesman

BENGHAZI—Loyalists of Moammar Gadhafi attacked an oil refinery near Ras Lanuf on Libya’s central coast on Monday killing 12 fighters who were guarding it, a spokesman for the country’s new rulers said.

“So far, we have a figure of 12 dead in the ranks of the revolutionaries,” National Transitional Council military spokesman Mohammed Zawawi told AFP.

“A group (of loyalists) traveling in five vehicles tried to enter the refinery but were unable to,” he added.

The oil infrastructure along the Mediterranean coast between Sidra and Brega was a key battleground of the seven-month uprising against Gadhafi and the front line between the mainly rebel-held east and mainly government-held west went back and forth several times.

But since the fall of Tripoli last month, NTC forces have advanced dozens of kilometers to the west toward Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, which remains in the hands of his loyalists.