Libya Reportedly Bombs Region Reclaimed by Chad

Libyan warplanes bombed Chadian troops in the northern Aozou region Sunday, one day after Chad claimed victory over the forces of its North African enemy, the Chadian ambassador in Paris reported.

Ambassador Ahmad Allam-mi described the bombings as “intense and incessant,” with the jets hitting Chadian positions at Aozou and elsewhere in the Tibesti mountains of northwestern Chad. He gave no word on casualties.

“Since this morning the Libyan air force has been carrying out intensive bombing on Aozou town and neighboring villages,” an army statement on state-run N’Djamena radio said.

It said Libyan planes “are pelting the people of the liberated areas with rockets and napalm and scatter bombs.”

An official with the Chadian Embassy in Paris said the retaliatory bombing was not unexpected.

‘Not the First Time’

“Although the bombing is very heavy, it is not the first time we have seen this type of attack, and because the attacks are concentrated in a mountainous region it is easy to hide from the bombs,” he said. “Every time Libya loses a strategic position it resorts to air attacks.”

Chad, which has been waging a lengthy border war with its larger neighbor, said Saturday that government forces routed Libyan troops and recaptured Aozou, the administrative base of a 42,000-square-mile border strip annexed by Libya leader Moammar Kadafi in 1973.

Allam-mi called the battle “a great victory in the process of liberating our national soil.”

Libya earlier Sunday threatened to retaliate for the attack in the Aozou region, which it described as being inside its territory.

“This aggression on (Libya) constitutes . . . a violation of international laws and conventions, a matter which gives (Libya) the right to reply to the aggression and to destroy its source,” said a statement, carried by Libyan radio.

Victory Rally

At Sunday’s big rally in Independence Square in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahamat Itno said that the liberation of Aozou “is not a surprise for us because that was our objective.”

But, acting as President Hissen Habre’s representative, Itno warned Chadians that the war was not over because “Kadafi’s Libya is not prepared to abandon its expansionist ambitions over Chad.”

He called on all Chadians to be on the alert and to support the army to carry on the fight against Libya.

Libya claims sovereignty over the Aozou strip, a region said to be rich in uranium and other minerals. It cites a World War II treaty between France and Italy. When the accord was signed, Chad was a French colony and Libya was ruled by Italy. However, Italy never ratified the agreement and France invalidated it.

Libyan forces annexed the strip in 1973, although no other government recognized the annexation.

Chad radio said Libya wanted the region for uranium to use in building nuclear weapons.