Rebels say petroleum sites are booby-trapped

 MADRID – Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi’s troops have booby-trapped petroleum installations in the strategic oil port of Brega so they can be blown up if his regime loses the town, a top rebel official said Thursday.

 Mahmoud Jibril, the rebels’ diplomatic chief, said Gadhafi’s forces have booby-trapped oil fields. He did not state which fields. Although Brega is a key oil processing and shipment hub, the fields that feed it lie far to the south in the Libyan desert. It does, however, contain massive containers filled with oil and natural gas ready to be offloaded onto ships.

 “Unfortunately, Brega is a big minefield right now,” Jibril told reporters after meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez. “We discovered that they planted mines all over the place. Even some oil establishments, some oil fields, have been full of bombs, explosives.”

Associated Press