Libya holds back from assault on lack of Gaddafi redoubts

Forces loyal to Libyas new rulers said they were holding back on Thursday from advancing on Moammar Gaddafis last redoubts despite their capture of two key southern oases.The commander of NATOs Libya air campaign, Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, said he was confident the mission could be completed well within three months after the alliance extended it for another 90 days.Algeria, which has previously angered Libyas new rulers, announced it now recognised the National Transitional Council, while Tunisia jailed former Libyan premier Baghdadi al-Mahmudi for illegal entry.Meanwhile a new regime official said oil production will resume soon but a return to pre-uprising production levels is still far off.We will return to production in the very next few days but exports will take longer, Mustafa el-Huni, who heads the economy, finance and oil commission at the National Transitional Council (NTC), said.But he added that resuming Libyas normal production of 1.6 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) is still far off.On the battlefront commanders said the new regime forces were Thursday in full control of all three main towns in the Al-Jufra oasis, a day after the capture of Libyas largest desert city, Sabha, in the deep south.The defeat of Gaddafi loyalists in the Saharan oases left diehards in his hometown of Sirte and in the desert city of Bani Walid to its west effectively cut off from any line of escape to the south.Al-Jufra -- Hun, Waddan and Sokna -- is liberated, a military spokesman in Libyas third largest city Misrata said in a statement Thursday.On Wednesday an NTC official said new regime forces had seized Waddan on Tuesday and took Hun the following day.Several key Gaddafi supporters fled to Niger from Sabha after it fell to new regime forces, NTC military spokesman Ahmed Omar Bani told a news conference on Thursday without elaborating.In its operational update, NATO said its warplanes had hit four anti-aircraft guns and a vehicle storage depot around Hun, and struck as well a command and control node and five surface-to-air missile systems in and around Sirte.NATOs operations commander said resistance among Gaddafi loyalists was now restricted to only three isolated pockets -- Sirte, Bani Walid and Al-Fugaha in the Al-Jufra region.Bouchard added that Gaddafi forces are no longer able to conduct coordinated operations throughout Libya, while the number of people at risk from pro-Gaddafi military action had fallen to about 200,000.He said he had no idea where Gaddafi was, but stressed that the fugitive strongman continues to give orders and entice regime forces to act.NTC commanders west of Sirte said they had been told to expect further NATO air strikes and had orders not to advance.East of Sirte, commanders said that they had postponed any offensive against the city for at least a week for want of ammunition after heavy fighting.