Chad Says Libyans Dropped Napalm on 2 Towns

Libyan aircraft dropped napalm on the northern Chad towns of Fada and Zouar on Saturday, and Libyan ground forces launched a new attack on Zouar, Chad’s army high command announced.

An army communique broadcast on Radio Chad said that government forces were “resisting heroically” and that fighting continued in Zouar in the arid Tibesti Mountains of northwest Chad. Chad says Zouar has been attacked four times by Libyan troops since Dec. 11.

Government forces claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the Libyans when they reached the area Dec. 31. Zouar is a small settlement but is a key point on the main track north to Libya.

Chadian officials say the town is not held definitively by either side, with Chadians fighting a guerrilla campaign from the surrounding mountains.

An earlier army communique said the air attacks “were mainly aimed at the civilian population.” It claimed a Libyan helicopter was shot down at the eastern oasis town of Fada.

Neither communique reported on casualties.

The Libyan news agency JANA denied that Libyan forces carried out air attacks, and it denied loss of a helicopter. The Libyan government of Col. Moammar Kadafi maintains that it has no forces in Chad.

France and the United States say several thousand Libyan troops are stationed in northern Chad.

The Chadian government said its forces captured Fada from Libyan forces and their Chadian rebel allies in a surprise attack Friday.

In Paris, Issiaka Anaime, spokesman for the Chadian Democratic Revolutionary Council, the last pro-Libyan rebel group, claimed in a communique that the council’s troops continued to hold Fada.

But French news media said French military sources confirmed Fada had fallen to Chadian government troops.

Chadian tribal forces loyal to former President Goukouni Oueddei hold much of the north. Until October, they were allied with Libya in a stalled effort to overthrow the Chadian government of President Hissen Habre. They changed sides to oppose Libya after Goukouni was wounded in a confrontation with Libyan forces in Tripoli and was reportedly placed under house arrest in the Libyan capital.

Chad, a former French possession, gained independence in 1960.