Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Moammar Gadhafi’s forces seized a strategic town in eastern Libya Tuesday, opening the way to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and a U.N. Security Council draft resolution on a no-fly zone was circulated.
The small town of Ajdabiya was all that stood between the relentless eastward advance of Libyan government troops and the second city of Benghazi and lies on a road junction from where Gadhafi’s forces could attempt to encircle the rebel stronghold.

“The town of Ajdabiya has been cleansed of mercenaries and terrorists linked to the Al-Qaeda organization,” state television said, referring to the rebels fighting to end Gadhafi’s 41 years of absolute power.
As his survival looks more likely, foreign powers face hard decisions over whether to isolate him or seek some form of rapprochement. The international community has been discussing a no-fly zone for three weeks, while rebels have faced daily attacks from Gadhafi’s war planes.

In New York, a draft resolution providing both for a no-fly zone and for further sanctions against Libyan leaders was circulated by Britain, France and Lebanon at a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation council on Libya.

The draft, seen by Reuters, says the council would authorize “a ban on all flights in the airspace of [Libya] in order to help protect civilians.” It would also authorize member states to “take all necessary measures to enforce compliance.”
After receiving the draft at a council meeting, members adjourned without taking action and were expected to reconvene Wednesday.

Germany’s Envoy Peter Wittig told reporters that some key questions
about the proposed no-fly zone remained unanswered. “We raised questions we felt are still not fully answered, as to the Arab participation in such a measure, as to whether the implementation of such a zone would run counter to the intention of the Arab League itself, the Arab League having pointed out that there should be no foreign intervention.” 

Ahead of the meeting, French envoy to the U.N. Gerard Arau said Paris was “deeply distressed” by the Security Council’s failure to react.

Earlier Tuesday, a G-8 meeting in Paris resisted French pressure to come out in support of a no-fly zone and made no mention of the issue in its final communiqué. Instead, the G-8 said Libyans have a right to democracy and warned Gadhafi he faced “dire consequences” if he ignored his people’s rights. It urged the Security Council to increase pressure on Gadhafi, including further economic measures.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain have led calls to impose a no-fly zone. But Gadhafi dismissed the plan. “We will fight and win. A situation of that type will only serve to unite the Libyan people,” he told the Italian daily Il Giornale. Sarkozy, he said, has “a mental disorder.”

In Washington, the White House said it put Libya’s foreign minister on a blacklist and sought ways to tap into some of the billions of dollars of seized Libyan assets to aid an embattled Libyan opposition.

In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem reiterated Syrian opposition to any “military intervention in the affairs of the region,” pointing to the “painful and dangerous” experiences of Iraq, Sudan, Lebanon and Gaza.

In Ajdabiya, government jets opened up with rocket fire on a rebel checkpoint at the western entrance to the town, then unleashed a rolling artillery barrage on the town and a nearby arms dump, following the same pattern of attack that has pushed back rebels more than 160 kilometers in a week-long counter-offensive.

At least one missile hit a residential area. Residents and rebels piled into cars and pickups to flee toward Benghazi or Tobruk, which are still in rebel hands.
“The battle is lost. Gadhafi is throwing everything against us,” said a rebel officer who gave his name as General Suleiman.

Libyan League for Human Rights chief Soliman Bouchuiguir, said in Geneva if Gadhafi attacked Benghazi, the seat of the rebels’ provisional National Council, there would be “a real bloodbath, a massacre like we saw in Rwanda.”
Anti-Gadhafi fighters in eastern Libya said they had appointed Abdel-Fattah Younes al-Abidi, who defected as interior minister earlier this month, as head of the rebel’s armed forces.

The small oil town of Brega, with a population of just 4,300, 75 kilometers southwest of Ajdabiya, changed hands several times in three days of heavy fighting, but also succumbed to superior government firepower Tuesday. “We have lost Brega completely. We could not face Gadhafi’s forces,” said a rebel. U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang said Gadhafi’s regime had “chosen to attack civilians with massive, indiscriminate force.”

In Misrata, the last major city in western Libya still in rebel hands, residents said water had been cut off to the city of 300,000 people, 200 kilometers east of Tripoli.

Pro-Gadhafi forces took control of the small town of Zuwara, west of Tripoli, late Monday after sending in tanks. A resident in Zuwara said security forces were trying to round up anyone suspected of links to the rebels. – Agencies