Tuesday, March 29, 2011

NAWFALIYAH/MISRATA, Libya: Rebels advanced west toward the birthplace of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi Monday, firing mortars and heavy machine guns in sporadic clashes with loyalist forces.
Emboldened by Western-led air strikes against Gadhafi’s troops, the rebels took the town of Nawfaliyah and moved toward Sirte, Gadhafi’s home town and an important military base, in the sixth week of an uprising against his 42-year rule.

As the rebels pressed forward in the east, Gadhafi’s troops were patrolling an area near the center of Misrata after shelling the previously rebel-controlled western city for days.
The government in Tripoli said it had “liberated” Misrata from rebels and declared a ceasefire there.
Late Monday, Western coalition forces bombed the West Mountain area in the west of Tripoli, Arab satellite networks reported.

Diplomatic activity accelerated on the eve of a 35-nation meeting in London Tuesday to discuss the Libya crisis.
Italy proposed a deal including a cease-fire, exile for Gadhafi and dialogue between rebels and tribal leaders. The rebel leadership ruled out compromise with Gadhafi’s followers. “We have had a vision from the very beginning and the main ingredient of this vision is the downfall of the Gadhafi regime,” spokesman Hafiz Ghoga said in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Qatar became the first Arab country to recognize the rebels as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people. Libyan state television called the move “blatant interference.”
And Kuwait’s foreign minister said Kuwaiti officials had met a council representative and suggested a formal recognition was forthcoming.

“This is considered a practical recognition,” Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah told reporters. “The matter requires procedures of course, which are subject to international law.”
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and the United States held talks on the conflict by video conference.
U.S. President Barack Obama was due to address the nation at (2330 GMT) on the conflict and was expected to tell Americans that the assault on Libya averted a humanitarian “catastrophe.”

In the nine days since the start of the Western-led bombing, the motley volunteer force of rebels has pressed half-way along the coast from its stronghold of Benghazi toward the capital Tripoli and regained control of most major oil terminals in the OPEC member state.

The rebels met sporadic resistance Monday as they continued their advance in convoys of pick-up trucks with machine guns mounted on them.
Just west of sandy, barren Nawfaliyah, bursts of sustained machine-gun fire and the whoosh of rockets could be heard, and plumes of black smoke rose ahead.

“Those are from our guns,” said Faisal Bozgaia, 28, a hospital worker turned rebel fighter, pointing to the smoke.

Rebels said occasional ambushes by Gadhafi forces had pushed them back but that they later regained their positions.
“We are advancing one, two kilometers at a time,” rebel Khalif Ali, 22, said in the town of Harawah, west of Nawfaliyah.
But the rapid advance is stretching rebel supply lines. “We have a serious problem with gasoline,” said a fighter waiting to fill up in the town of Ras Lanuf.

Reuters correspondent Michael Georgy, reporting from Sirte to the west, said he saw police and military but no sign of fighting. Soldiers were manning checkpoints and green Libyan flags flapped in the wind. Militiamen fired AK-47 rifles defiantly into the air. “If they come to Sirte, we will defend our city,” said Osama bin Nafaa, 32, a policeman.
In Misrata, Gadhafi soldiers manned checkpoints and took up position on rooftops. Some housefronts were smashed, smoke was rising from several areas and gunfire rang out constantly across the city.

Several civilians approached a group of journalists, some of them woman and children waving green flags.
“Civilians are happy,” said an army official who declined to be identified. “Everything you are hearing is a lie. The function of our army is to save the people and to protect the leader. We cannot kill our own people.”
A rebel spokesman in another western town, Zintan, said forces loyal to Gadhafi had bombarded the town with rockets early Monday, Al-Jazeera reported.
From the outset, the military campaign has faced questions about its scope and aims, including the extent to which it will actively back the rebel side and whether it might target Gadhafi himself.

“We consider that intervention by the coalition in what is essentially an internal civil war is not sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council resolution,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the BBC: “We are there to protect civilians – no more, no less.”
France said the coalition was strictly complying with U.N. terms. It said its planes struck a command center south of Tripoli belonging to Gadhafi’s forces Sunday and Monday.

The Defense Ministry in London said British Tornado aircraft destroyed Libyan government ammunition bunkers in the Sabha area of Libya’s southern desert in the early hours of Monday.
“He [Gadhafi] is still capable … of inflicting further great bloodshed on the people of his own country. So we must maintain our efforts absolutely in line with international law,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague told BBC television.

U.S. Admiral Bill Gortney said Monday the coalition carried out strikes against the command headquarters of one of Gadhafi’s most loyal units. – Reuters