Tuesday, March 22, 2011

By Imed Lamloum
Agence France Presse

TRIPOLI: Moammar Gadhafi’s Tripoli compound was rocked by blasts Monday and his southern strongholds and a navy base were bombed as international criticism mounted over the air assault on Libya.

Rebels, meanwhile, said they were under intense attack by Gadhafi’s forces in the city of Misrata near Tripoli and an AFP reporter saw them beaten back from a frail attempt to retake the eastern key town of Ajdabiya.
In Cairo, the Arab League Monday reaffirmed its support for Operation Odyssey Dawn after the previous day saying the air strikes led by the United States, France and Britain went beyond the scope of a U.N. resolution to implement a no-fly zone.

The operation was launched Saturday to enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 aimed at stopping Gadhafi’s forces harming civilians as they battle a month-long uprising.
And as divisions over the airstrikes emerged in NATO, the U.S. said the ultimate goal of the operation is the departure of Gadhafi. Speaking in Santiago, President Barack Obama stressed it was “U.S. policy that Gadhafi needs to go.”

But British Prime Minister David Cameron said there was no legal authority for regime change in Libya.
State television said the capital Tripoli came under attack after dark. Loud explosions and anti-aircraft fire ripped across the night sky near Gadhafi’s residence at around 1900 GMT, an AFP reporter said.

Similar explosions rocked the capital Sunday night, with coalition officials Monday saying an administrative building in Gadhafi’s fortified complex had been destroyed by a cruise missile.
Witnesses said a Libyan navy base some 10 kilometers east of Tripoli was also bombed late Monday. They said the Bussetta base was hit at 1900 GMT.

A Libyan government spokesman, Mussa Ibrahim, told a Tripoli news conference coalition warplanes Monday bombarded the southern town of Sebha, bastion of Gadhafi’s Guededfa tribe.
Ibrahim also claimed that Misrata, Libya’s third city 214 kilometers east of Tripoli, was “liberated three days ago” and that Gadhafi’s forces were hunting “terrorist elements.”

But a rebel spokesman reached by phone in Misrata said the insurgents were still in control despite an onslaught by Gadhafi loyalists, who he said opened fire with tanks and set snipers on roofs to gun down people in the streets.
A medic in Misrata, speaking by telephone against a background of gunfire, confirmed a death toll of 40 and said at least 300 people had been wounded.

“Casualties fell in their dozens,” after snipers and a tank “fired on demonstrators,” the rebel spokesman said.
The Libyan’s strongman’s troops had not yet taken Misrata, but “have taken up position along the main road where they have deployed three tanks, as well as positioning snipers on rooftops,” the rebel spokesman said.

Gadhafi’s troops retreated 100 kilometers from the insurgents’ capital of Benghazi after fierce strafing by coalition aircraft destroyed much of their armor, but beat off a rebel advance on their new positions in Ajdabiya Monday.
As rebels who massed in their hundreds outside Ajdabiya advanced toward their position, the government troops opened fire with artillery and remaining tanks, scattering the insurgents.

General Carter Ham, head of the U.S. Africa Command, said that U.S. forces had no mission to support a ground offensive by the rebels, but at the same time Gadhafi’s troops in the Benghazi area show “little will or capability to resume offensive operations.”
The U.S. and France denied coalition forces would target Gadhafi, whose whereabouts were unknown Monday, as did the head of Britain’s armed forces after Foreign Secretary William Hague had refused to rule it out.

But Washington made it clear that they wanted Gadhafi out.
“We’re trying to convince Colonel Gadhafi and his regime, and his associates, that they need to step down from power,” said state department spokesman Mark Toner. “That remains our ultimate goal here.”

NATO struggled Monday to overcome divisions about a role in the military operation in Libya, as France resisted pressure to let the alliance take over and Turkey criticized the bombing campaign.
As more nations joined the Western coalition pounding Gadhafi’s forces, NATO was still debating whether, and in what form, the Western military organization should join the U.N.-mandated intervention.

NATO members France, Britain and the U.S. have acted as individual nations in the air and sea campaign against Gadhafi’s regime, with U.S. military officers coordinating operations from bases in Germany and Italy.

But London, Rome and several other alliance members favor moving to a centralized NATO command, with Norway even saying its six fighter jets would stay grounded as long as it was unclear who was running the operations. “It shouldn’t be a war on Libya,” said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, while Bulgaria labeled military intervention an “adventure” driven by oil interests.

Germany, which abstained on Resolution 1973, said the action in Libya justified Berlin’s decision not to take part.
A U.N. diplomat said in New York the U.N. Security Council will meet Thursday at the request of Gadhafi’s regime, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would address it.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, meanwhile, expressed full support Monday for Resolution 1973, saying comments the previous day that the air strikes exceeded the UN mandate had been “misinterpreted.”
“We are committed to the UNSC Resolution 1973, we have no objection to this decision, particularly as it does not call for an invasion of Libyan territory,” he said after meeting Ban in Cairo.

Ban appealed for unity over implementing Resolution 1973. “It is important that the international community speak with one voice to implement the second council resolution,” he said, adding that “strong and decisive measures” had been possible only because of Arab League support for a no-fly zone.

Belgian and Spanish warplanes began patrolling Libyan skies Monday, Danish and French aircraft launched new missions, Italy helped to suppress air defenses and Norwegian fighters left for Italian bases, respective official sources said.

Gadhafi Sunday promised “a long, drawn-out war with no limits” in a speech broadcast on state television but without appearing on camera.