Tripoli: Russia said on Thursday France's arms drop to rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi violated a UN arms embargo on Libya, a stance that could deepen divisions within a NATO alliance that wants him ousted from power.
France on Wednesday became the first NATO country to openly acknowledge arming the insurgency against Gaddafi's 41-year rule that has become the bloodiest of the pro-democracy "Arab Spring" revolts buffeting the Middle East and North Africa.
Russia's position is important also because it could raise the weapons airlift issue in the UN Security Council, where Moscow is a veto-wielding permanent member.
Governments -- including some of France's allies in NATO -- questioned whether the French move exceeded the terms of a UN resolution authorising the use of force to protect Libyan civilians in the four-month-old conflict.
"We asked our French colleagues today whether reports that weapons from France were delivered to Libyan rebels correspond with reality," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"If this is confirmed, it is a very crude violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1970," he said. That resolution, adopted in February, imposed a comprehensive arms embargo on Libya.
France's weapons airlift, while possibly increasing the insurgent threat to Gaddafi, highlights a dilemma for NATO.
More than 90 days into its bombing campaign, Gaddafi is still in power and no breakthrough is in sight, making some NATO members feel they should help the rebels more pro-actively, something the poorly armed insurgents have encouraged.
But if they do that, as in the case of France, they risk fracturing the cohesion of the international coalition because of differences over how far to go in trying to topple Gaddafi.
Even before news of the French arms supply emerged, fissures were emerging in the coalition with some members voicing frustration about the high cost, civilian casualties, and the elusiveness of a military victory.
Gaddafi says the NATO campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing the North African state's oil and says NATO's UN-mandated justification for its campaign -- to protect Libyan civilians from attack -- is spurious.
France said on Wednesday it did not break the embargo by parachuting weapons to the rebels because the arms were needed to defend civilians who were in imminent danger of being overrun by Gaddafi's forces.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made clear on Thursday the airlift was a unilateral French initiative. Asked by reporters on a visit to Vienna if NATO had been involved, he answered: "No."
"As regards compliance with the UN Security Council resolution, it is for the UN sanctions committee to determine that," Rasmussen said.
In the rebel-held city of Misrata, a city about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli that has been bombarded for months by Gaddafi's security forces, six rockets landed early on Thursday near the oil refinery and port.
A Reuters journalist in Misrata reported no casualties.
Britain's military said its Apache helicopters had attacked a government checkpoint and two military vehicles near Khoms, on the Mediterranean coast between Misrata and Tripoli.
Insurgents in the area say Gaddafi's forces are massing, and bringing up weapons, to quell an uprising in the nearby town of Zlitan. Rebels inside Zlitan said they mounted a raid on pro-Gaddafi positions on Wednesday night.
"(We) carried out a violent attack last night on checkpoints ... and exchanged gunfire, killing a number of soldiers," a rebel spokesman, who identified himself as Mabrouk, told Reuters from the town.
Le Figaro newspaper said France had parachuted rocket launchers, assault rifles and anti-tank missiles into the Western Mountains region, southwest of Tripoli, in early June. A military spokesman later confirmed delivery of arms.
Despite the diplomatic storm, the rebels encouraged more arms deliveries.
"Giving (us) weapons we will be able to decide the battle more quickly, so that we can shed as little blood as possible," senior rebel figure Mahmoud Jibril told a news conference in Vienna.
The conflict has halted oil exports from Libya, helping push up world oil prices to near $112 per barrel.
Jibril said it may take years for oil exports to resume from the Arab North African state. "No, no oil is being sold. A lot of the oil well system was destroyed, especially in the east."
Misrata's rebels have pushed westwards out of the city but are blocked by government troops in Zlitan. In the eastern third of the country, rebel forces have been unable to advance west to the oil town of Brega.
Rebels in the Western Mountains advanced 30 km (19 miles) north towards Tripoli last week, but have since been held down by pro-Gaddafi forces around the town of Bir al-Ghanam, about 80 km short of the capital.
Nalut, a Western Mountains town near the border with Tunisia, came under artillery fire from pro-Gaddafi forces overnight, a rebel spokesman called Mohamed told Reuters.
"Two (rockets) hit the town centre while the rest landed on farmland surrounding the town," he said.
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