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Thursday, 31 March, 2011, 19:30 ( 17:30 GMT )
Editorial/OP-ED




News Summary from the US/International Press on the Libyan Crisis - by Morgan Strong
23/03/2011 10:15:00
U.S. Seeks to Unify Allies as More Airstrikes Rock Tripoli

(N.Y. Times) - President Obama worked on Tuesday to bridge differences among allies about how to manage the military campaign in Libya, as airstrikes continued to rock Tripoli and forces loyal to Col. Muammar Al Qathafi showed no sign of ending their sieges of rebel-held cities.

On a day when two United States airmen bailed out over Libya and were rescued after the crash of their fighter jet, Mr. Obama and the leaders of Britain and France stepped up efforts to work out an accord on who would be in charge of military operations once the initial onslaught on Libya’s air defence systems was complete.

Mr. Obama reiterated that the United States would step back from the leading role within days, but he also said it was confronting the complexities of running the military campaign with a multilateral force cobbled together quickly and without a clear understanding among its members about their roles.

The President expressed confidence that the coalition would resolve disagreements over the role of NATO, which had flared in recent days over France’s insistence that the alliance not play a leading role in the operation. NATO now seems likely to provide “command and control” functions, but with a separate authority running the operation, which includes Arab and other non-NATO countries.

“I would expect that over the next several days you will have clarity and a meeting of the minds of all those who are participating in the process,” Mr. Obama said in a news conference in El Salvador, where he was nearing the end of a Latin American trip that has been eclipsed by the military strikes on forces loyal to Colonel Al Qathafi.

Even as the Western allies tried to settle management issues, they were still struggling to corral Arab backing for the campaign. Mr. Obama telephoned the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, on Tuesday to nail down his support. So far, Qatar is the only Arab state to offer fighter jets to help enforce a no-fly zone, and there were signs that other Arab states were wavering in their support.

The tension and confusion laid bare the unwieldiness of the coalition - which American officials conceded had been put together on the fly - even four days into the operation, after the United States had fired 160 Tomahawk missiles and lost its first plane, an F-15E Strike Eagle, which crashed in the desert after mechanical troubles. The plane’s two-member crew had minor injuries but was rescued.

“This is complicated,” Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates said to reporters with him in Moscow. “This command-and-control business is complicated. We haven’t done something like this, kind of on the fly before. So it’s not surprising to me that it would take a few days to get it all sorted out.”

At least three bomb blasts were heard in Tripoli Tuesday evening as flares from Libyan antiaircraft guns arced across the sky. Attacks by pro-Al Qathafi forces were particularly intense in the western cities of Zintan and Misurata - where snipers and artillery have killed dozens over the past five days and wounded scores more, a rebel spokesman said.

Colonel Al Qathafi made a brief but defiant appearance on Libyan television Tuesday night, appearing at what reporters were told was his Tripoli residence to denounce the bombing raids and pledge victory. “I am here. I am here. I am here,” he shouted from a balcony to supporters waving green flags.

Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, an American officer who is the tactical commander of the mission, said that his intelligence reports confirmed that Colonel Al Qathafi’s forces were attacking civilians in Misurata.

The admiral, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon by telephone on Tuesday afternoon, did not say whether there had been a response yet, but said, “We are considering all options.”

A rebel spokesman, reached by satellite phone in Misurata, said he had not seen any evidence of airstrikes there against the Al Qathafi forces, which continued to shell the city and threaten residents with sniper fire.

“They now control all the way to the town centre, and they have put snipers on the rooftops along the way,” said the rebel spokesman, Mohamed, using only his first name to protect his family.
A doctor at the central Misurata hospital said that 13 residents had died on Tuesday, bringing the total casualty count to 90 over the previous nine days.

Rebels say the city has been without telecommunications for three weeks and without water or electricity for nine days during the siege by Al Qathafi forces.

Despite statements from American military officials that the fighting and level of coalition “kinetic activity” in Libya would soon decline, the Pentagon released figures showing that on Tuesday there were more coalition airstrikes, 57, than on any day since Saturday, the first day of the American-led assaults.

In San Salvador, Mr. Obama said that the coalition would “fairly shortly” be able to claim it had imposed a no-fly zone over Libya. “We will also be able to say we have averted immediate tragedy,” he said at a news conference with the president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes.

Mr. Obama reiterated that the United States would yield its lead role to France, Britain and other countries in the coming days. American planes will not enforce the no-fly zone, he said, nor will American ships enforce the arms embargo stipulated by last week’s United Nations Security Council Resolution.

“That’s why building this international coalition has been so important,” he said, “because it means the United States is not bearing all the cost.”

But the building of this coalition has been tortuous, and analysts said holding it together will be no less challenging. On Tuesday, NATO countries were making slow and ill-tempered progress toward deciding who will run the operation.

France proposed a committee of foreign ministers of countries involved in the operation to act as a “political steering body,” France’s foreign minister, Alain Juppé, told Parliament on Tuesday. NATO would provide “support” - the military “command and control” necessary to coordinate the ships and planes of various countries.

A senior American official declined to comment on the French proposal, though he noted that the command structure had to encompass NATO and non-NATO countries - akin to the International Security Assistance Force, which oversees coalition forces in Afghanistan, or earlier coalition campaigns in the Balkans.

“What we’re saying right now is that NATO has a key role to play here,” Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, said to reporters on Mr. Obama’s plane, flying from Chile to El Salvador.

After two days of meetings in Brussels, NATO ambassadors will meet Wednesday after getting advice from their governments to try to approve a deal. Monday’s meeting was particularly tense, with the French and German ambassadors walking out of the room after their countries’ positions were criticized by the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

American and British plans to have NATO play the leading role have been blocked for different reasons by France and Turkey. This has led Norway to refuse to fly its planes and Italy to say that it might have to rethink the way its air bases were being used. With different air forces flying and no central control, the Italians say, the operation would be uncoordinated, even dangerous.

France argues that NATO command would be opposed by the Arab League as Western interference in the Muslim world; some allies suggest that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, having pushed Washington to act on Libya, wants to keep himself visible as the driver of the Libyan policy.

Turkey, the only Muslim-majority member of NATO, is trying to keep lines open to Colonel Qaddafi as well as to the Libyan opposition. Mr. Obama called Mr. Sarkozy and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain on Tuesday to try to arrive at a solution.

Turkey had initially expressed fears that the military campaign appeared to go beyond the mandate of the Security Council resolution. On Monday evening, Mr. Obama called Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, and the White House insisted that Mr. Erdogan had thrown his full support behind the effort.

In a statement, the White House said the two men “underscored their shared commitment to the goal of helping provide the Libyan people an opportunity to transform their country, by installing a democratic system that respects the people’s will.”

That statement raised some hackles on Capitol Hill, where Republicans said it amounted to an explicit call for regime change. Mr. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, later clarified that this was not the objective of the military mission, though Mr. Obama believes Colonel AL Qathafi needs to go because he has lost the confidence of his people.

Rallying the Arab countries may be a big challenge, however. A former military commander in the United Arab Emirates said his country, which had considered deploying jets, was backing off because of anger at the pressure the West has put on its neighbour Bahrain, over its crackdown on protests there. Saudi Arabia, which has also been at odds with Washington over Bahrain, has yet to pledge help.

A senior administration official noted that the United Arab Emirates had reiterated support for the United Nations resolution and said that other Arab countries would announce support for the mission in coming days. “The bottom line is, we’re confident that other Arab countries will take part,” this official said.

White House: Allies should lead Libya ops

(UPI) - While the command-and-control structure for military operations in Libya is not finalized, NATO is expected to play a lead role, the White House said Tuesday.

Speaking aboard Air Force One en route from Chile to El Salvador, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters NATO is only part of a broader coalition supporting the no-fly zone over Libya, and the White House expects its allies and partners to take the lead in its enforcement.

"There's agreement that NATO has certain capabilities that are very important in terms of facilitating command and control … however there is a coalition, of course, that is broader than NATO, so this is not simply a NATO operation," Rhodes said.

"This is still being worked in Brussels. The command structure is not yet finalised, but I think what everybody does agree is that there is a key role that NATO can play."

Rhodes stressed allied involvement in the military operations has been strong.

"The vast majority of the flights associated with the enforcement of the beginnings of this no-fly zone are already allied flights, which is important," he said. "The United States, of course, continues to bring our capabilities to bear as well, but we're seeing very robust allied participation, which is good. …

"In terms of the enforcement of the no-fly zone, we expect our allies and partners to be in the lead."

Gates: Al Qathafi killing civilians

(UPI) - Col. Muammar Al Qathafi's forces are responsible for all or almost all of the civilian casualties in Libya, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.

Gates, on a visit to Moscow, said he expects violence in the country to drop "in the next few days" as Libya's air defences are damaged. He said coalition attacks have been aimed at air defence installations that are not in populated areas.

"It's perfectly evident that the vast majority - if not nearly all civilian casualties - have been inflicted by Al Qathafi," Gates said.

Russian leaders' comments on Libya have been contradictory, The New York Times reported. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is out of the country, said Monday the U.N. resolution authorizing a no-fly zone reminded him "of a medieval call for a crusade," adopting a term used by many Arab leaders facing threats from the West.

President Dmitry Medvedev supported the resolution, which Russian diplomats voted for, saying Al Qathafi has attacked the Libyan people. Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov took an intermediate position, calling for a cease-fire while endorsing the resolution.

Resolution 1973 allows attack on Al Qathafi?

(UPI) - With international sentiment mixed on military attacks on Libya, an international lawyer said regime change is legally justified by the U.N. Security Council.

Members of the Arab League, United States, France and Britain campaigned Monday about the international military intervention under way in Libya.

The U.N. Security Council last week passed Resolution 1973 that calls on member states to "take all necessary measures" to protect civilians from coming under attack by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said last week that "robust action" was needed in Libya despite reservations by some of his Democratic and Republican colleagues.

"The bottom line remains that Al Qathafi has lost all legitimacy and determined international pressure will remain imperative to ensure that the will of the Libyan people prevails," Kerry said in a statement.

International forces during the weekend struck a Al Qathafi compound, though authorities stressed the Libyan leader wasn't a specific military target.

Philippe Sands, professor of law at University College London, wrote in The Guardian newspaper in London that language of Resolution 1973 that authorizes military force allows for targeting of the Libyan leader.

"The authorisation of 'all necessary measures' is broad and appears to allow the targeting of Al Qathafi and others who act to put civilians 'under threat of attack' - words that go beyond the need to establish a connection with actual attacks," he said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague stressed, however, that London wasn't going to "speculate on the targets" in Libya.

Allied Strikes do not stop Al Qathafi’s forces
 
(CNN) - Four days of allied strikes have battered Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi's air force and largely destroyed his long-range air defence systems, a top U.S. commander said Tuesday. But there was little evidence that the attacks had stopped regime forces from killing civilians or shifted the balance of power in favour of the rebels.

Al Qathafi loyalists made further advances into the besieged western city of Misurata, continued to pound the small town of Zintan southwest of Tripoli, the capital, and fired artillery to hold at bay rebels attempting to regroup outside the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiyah.

The Libyan military’s attacks and the mounting civilian deaths call into question whether the internationally imposed no-fly zone can achieve its goal of protecting civilians, let alone help loosen Al Qathafi’s grip on power. It seemed unlikely that the coalition, which has argued in recent days over the scope and leadership of the allied mission, would countenance a significant escalation.

Late Tuesday, Al Qathafi made his first televised appearance since the bombing campaign began, delivering a defiant address to supporters at his Tripoli compound, which was struck by Tomahawk missiles a few days earlier. “I am here, I am here, I am here,” he said, as celebratory gunfire echoed across the city. “We will win. We will be victorious in this historic battle.”

President Obama, meanwhile, sought to shore up support for the international mission, saying that the U.S. and allied efforts to halt advances by Al Qathafi’s forces had “saved lives.”
“In Benghazi, a city of 700,000 people, you had the prospect of Al Qathafi’s forces carrying out his orders to show no mercy,” Obama said at a news conference while in San Salvador. “That could have resulted in catastrophe in that town.”

Hours earlier, a top U.S. military official had touted the limited gains that allied forces had made over the course of the four-day-old military intervention.

Since the bombing began Saturday, U.S. and allied forces have launched 162 Tomahawk missiles and conducted more than 100 attacks with precision-guided satellite bombs, said U.S. Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, commander of the allied task force charged with enforcing the U.N. resolution that authorized action in Libya.

But he conceded that the airstrikes have been unable to halt attacks by Libyan government forces against civilians.

“They are conducting attacks against civilians in Misurata in violation of the Security Council resolution,” said Locklear, referring to the city 131 miles east of Tripoli. He added that allied commanders were “considering all options” to halt attacks by Libyan forces but declined to provide specifics about any future military actions.

A doctor at a Misurata hospital said that about 80 people had been killed in the city since the adoption Thursday of the U.N. resolution, which called for a halt to attacks on civilians. Among the 12 said to have died Tuesday was a family of six; a tank shell hit their car. The doctor said that he had stopped counting the injured, that patients are being treated on the floor and that the hospital is running out of almost all medicines and supplies.

“This no-fly zone doesn’t mean anything to us because Al Qathafi only had a few planes and they were doing nothing,” said the doctor, who spoke by telephone on the condition of anonymity because he fears Libyan forces may soon retake the city. “We need a no-drive zone because it is tanks and snipers that are killing us.”

Al Qathafiloyalists, who launched a major assault on Misurata just hours before the U.N. Security Council vote, have secured several neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city, but rebels are holding out in the city centre. To halt the Libyan government’s advance, allied forces would probably have to launch airstrikes in densely populated urban areas.
Question of civilian toll

In Moscow, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates said Tuesday that the pace of attacks would wane in the days ahead as the United States hands over responsibility for maintaining the no-fly zone to its allies and the number of clear targets diminishes.

Meanwhile, there were indications that international support for the coalition effort is beginning to flag, with China joining Russia in calling for a cease-fire to avert feared civilian casualties. China, like Russia, abstained from voting on the U.N. resolution.

“The U.N. resolution on the no-fly zone over Libya aimed to protect civilians,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters at a news briefing. “We oppose abuse of force causing more civilian casualties.”

U.S. and other coalition officials dispute Libyan assertions that the strikes have caused civilian deaths. “It’s perfectly evident that the vast majority - if not nearly all - of civilian casualties have been inflicted by Gaddafi,” Gates told reporters after meeting with Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. “We’ve been very careful about this.”

Britain’s Channel 4 TV reported that six villagers were injured by American troops, who apparently opened fire during the rescue of two U.S. crew members forced to eject over eastern Libya when their F-15 fighter jet malfunctioned and crashed overnight Monday. Among the injured civilians was a young boy who is likely to lose a leg, Channel 4 said.

Locklear declined to comment on the report and said an investigation had been launched into why the jet crashed. He said one of the downed aviators had been rescued by rebels, who “treated him with dignity and respect” before handing him over to the U.S. military. U.S. forces rescued the plane’s weapons operator, the military said.
Clinton’s comments

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested Tuesday that the Libyan leader and some members of his inner circle might be searching for a way out of the country - and the conflict.

“We’ve heard about other people close to him reaching out to people that they know around the world - Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America, beyond - saying what do we do? How do we get out of this? What happens next?” Clinton said in an interview with ABC News.

But at least in Tripoli, the government appears to be in firm control nearly a month after the last major protests were crushed by security forces using live ammunition.

On Tuesday, Libyan government officials took journalists to see a cluster of bombed warehouses struck the previous night at a central harbour that appeared to have housed military hardware.
In one warehouse, four mobile missile launchers had been destroyed by a direct hit, along with a multiple-barrelled rocket launcher.

Three Soviet-made surface-to-surface missiles were unscathed, but officials said they were used only for training. Libyan navy Capt. Abdul Bassit told reporters that no one had been killed in the attack because officials had suspected the site would be targeted and had evacuated it.

Since the start of the Western-led bombing campaign against Libya's armed forces, government' opponents in Tripoli have been emboldened

(L.A. Times) - He woke up in a fright as the air raids and antiaircraft guns opened up over Tripoli. But when Abdul-Momen climbed to his rooftop to watch the tracer fire streaking the sky, it was not fear that filled his heart. It was hope.

Across the expanse of his neighbourhood early Sunday morning, the young doctor could see others holding up their cellphone cameras to record history. And although they were too afraid of their neighbours to publicly cheer, neither were they cursing the West or chanting pro-government slogans.

"For the first time we finally have hope that our nightmare of 40 years will soon be over," Abdul-Momen said a few days into the bombing campaign. "I'm looking forward to seeing a free Libya without Muammar Al Qathafi."

With control of the broadcast media and the streets of Tripoli, the capital, Al Qathafi loyalists have for weeks intimidated their opponents, allowing only a message of almost giddy support for the leader to fill the public space. Even news of Japan's earthquake and tsunami was ignored.

But since the start of the Western-led bombing campaign against Libya's armed forces, the edifice of control has begun to crack. Except for a few spokespeople, Libyan officials have slipped away. Al Qathafi and his outspoken son, Seif al Islam, who had been giving interviews nonstop to international news organisations, have largely disappeared.

Al Qathafi may still be able to hang on. He did take to the airwaves just before midnight Tuesday in what was described as a live appearance before supporters at his Bab Al-Azimuth compound. He vowed to be victorious. "The most powerful air defence is the people," he said. "Here are the people."

Many aren't buying it. The street value of the country's currency, equal to the official rate before the bombing started, has fallen 25%. Lines are forming at rationing centres distributing rice, tea, oil and barley, and at gas stations. Commercial activity, which had perked up after weeks of political unrest, has fallen off dramatically.

Most important, the government's opponents in Tripoli have been emboldened despite Al Qathafi's vow Sunday to arm all his supporters. Many perceived that as a tactic to further cow a protest movement here that his security forces crushed with brute force last month.

"It's a joke, he will never arm the people," said one university professor, who asked that his last name not be published for security reasons. "He knows that half of the people at least will immediately turn their guns against him."

Fuelling the resentment is repressed anger over those killed and missing since the unrest began. For the first time in weeks, people are speaking up about atrocities committed during the protests that began just before the five-year anniversary of February 17, 2006, protests in the eastern city of Benghazi in which security forces killed 16 people and injured 62.

One opposition activist said that nearly two dozen members of his Farjan tribe were killed in the Al Qathafi stronghold of Sirte.

The doctor, Abdul-Momen, who also asked that his full name not be published, said that about 65 people were killed in one neighbourhood alone in the Souk Jouma area of Tripoli. That number included 24 bodies brought to a polyclinic where he works.

"The first night, they could not find places in the hospital to put the bodies," said one activist.

Some families, one activist said, privately buried their dead in order not to arouse the attention of the authorities. "Libya has many untold stories," he said.

Al Qathafi loyalists continue to portray a government unbowed by the bombing campaign. On Tuesday, state television declared that Libyan citizens continued to "flock" to Al Qathafi's compound to support their leader.

"America will always be the loser," said one poet on state television. "The leader has God on his side, making him always victorious. Let America tighten its sanctions. The colonel rejects its imperialism."

The monotonous chants of "God, Muammar, Libya and that's it," still are repeated by Al Qathafi loyalists on television and in contrived street rallies.

But few people are attending those rallies, and alternative voices have begun to emerge and subtly challenge the government's contention that the rebels are a gang of Al Qaeda militants supported by the West in a plot to steal Libya's oil.

"This crisis has divided families," Yousef Iyad, a tribal leader, said at a tribal meeting that was broadcast live on state television. "These events have created a social disaster that we have not experienced in modern Libyan times. The scale of the events, the scale of the violence we have experienced, is unprecedented."

Nearly all the tribal leaders meeting at central Tripoli's Algeria Square inside an ornate hall with a large portrait of a much younger Al Qathafi peering from one end, avoided parroting the government's hard line on the rebellion. Instead, they announced plans to march across the country to reunite Libya's divided east and west.

Asked how they would resolve the fundamental divide between those who want Al Qathafi and those who don't, Iyad replied that the country could address those differences once the bloodshed subsided.

Among opposition supporters in Tripoli, there was optimism that the airstrikes would continue and help the rebels topple Al Qathafi. Many are watching to see whether protests, which have subsided in recent weeks, will break out on Friday after weekly prayers.

"We are like boiling water, waiting to spill out," said one opposition activist, a retired oil engineer who has frequently attended opposition rallies.

Meantime, the Al Qathafi propaganda machine was sputtering. For journalists on a visit to downtown Tripoli's Green Square on Tuesday, the normal procession of young men and women hanging from car windows and screaming in support of Al Qathafi was gone. Instead, shopkeepers and others gleefully predicted the imminent collapse of the regime.

"He's finished sooner or later," said one business owner in Tripoli's ancient Old City. "Maybe it takes three or four months. We are fighting against the mafia family. Now that they have frozen all his money, he's completely lost."

After pleading for days for government spokesmen to provide evidence of their claims that civilians had been killed or injured and infrastructure damaged by the Western airstrikes, reporters were taken to a port in Tripoli struck late Monday by at least six missiles.

But it was a navy port, filled with Russian-made military trucks, mobile missile launchers and antiaircraft guns, all scorched by the airstrikes. And officials at the base said there had been no casualties, civilian or otherwise.

Reporters visiting a cafe not far from the port encountered a group of smiling young men.

"We'd like to say what we think, but we can't," one told the reporters, gesturing toward the government minder hovering nearby. "But God willing, we'll be able to talk soon."

On the terrace of the cafe stood a portrait of Al Qathafi, half ripped down.


West will end in "dustbin of history," Al Qathafi says

(Reuters) - Western powers pounding Libya's defences will wind up in the dustbin of history, said leader Muammar Al Qathafi as his troops held back rebel advances despite four nights of attacks from the air.

While Western air power has grounded Gaddafi's planes and pushed back his troops and amour from the brink of rebel stronghold Benghazi, disorganized and poorly equipped insurgents have failed to capitalize on the ground and remain pinned down.

The rebels have been unable to dislodge Al Qthafi's forces from the key junction of Ajdabiyah in the east, while government tanks dominate the last big rebel hold-out of Misurata. There is big risk of stalemate on the ground, analysts say.

At least two explosions were heard in the Libyan capital Tripoli before dawn on Wednesday, Reuters witnesses said. No anti-aircraft fire could be heard in the city, and no further details were immediately available.

"We will not surrender," Al Qathafi earlier told supporters forming a human shield to protect him at his Tripoli compound.

"We will defeat them by any means ... We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one ... We will be victorious in the end," he said in a live television broadcast, his first public appearance for a week.

"This assault ... is by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history," Al Qathafi said in a speech followed by fireworks in the Libyan capital as crowds cheered and supporters fired guns into the air.

The Libyan government denies its army is conducting any offensive operations and says troops are only fighting to defend themselves when they come under attack, but rebels and residents say Gaddafi's tanks have kept up their shelling of Misurata in the west, killing 40 people on Monday alone, and also attacked the small town of Zintan on the border with Tunisia.

It was impossible to independently verify the reports.

Rebels Bogged Down

The siege of Misurata, now weeks old, is becoming increasingly desperate, with water cut off for days and food running out, doctors operating on patients in hospital corridors and many of the wounded left untreated or simply turned away.

"The situation in the local hospital is disastrous," said a Misurata doctor in a statement. "The doctors and medical teams are exhausted beyond human physical ability and some of them cannot reach the hospital because of tanks and snipers."

The rebel effort in east Libya meanwhile was bogged down outside Ajdabiyah, with no movement on the strategic town since Gaddafi's remaining tanks holed up there after the government's armoured advance along the open road to Benghazi was blown to bits by French air strikes on Saturday night.

Hiding in the sand dunes from the tank fire coming from the town, the rebels are without heavy weapons, leadership, communication, or even a plan.

While Western countries remain reluctant to commit ground troops who could guide in close air strikes, it remains to be seen whether the rebel's bravado and faith in God can take towns and advance toward their target of capturing Tripoli.

Western warplanes have flown more than 300 sorties over Libya and more than 162 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired in the United Nations-mandated mission to protect Libyan civilians against government troops.

Defence analysts say the no-fly zone over Libya could end up costing the coalition more than $1 billion if the operations drags on more than a couple of months.

Obama said the allies should be able to announce soon that they have achieved the objective of creating the no-fly zone.

But, he said, Al Qathafi would present a potential threat to his people "unless he is willing to step down."

"We will continue to support the efforts to protect the Libyan people. But we will not be in the lead," Obama said.

Obama, facing questions at home about the Libyan mission, duration and cost, wants the United States to give up operational control of enforcing the no-fly zone within days.

Obama spoke with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday and they agreed NATO should play an important role in enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone, the White House said.

France had been against a NATO role for fear of alienating Arab support, while Turkey had also opposed the alliance taking a command role as it said air strikes had already overstepped what was authorized by the United Nations. But both countries' objections had been overcome, U.S. officials said.

The plan is for NATO's command structure to be used for the operations under the political leadership of a "steering body" made up of Western and Arab nations members of the alliance policing Libya's skies, diplomats said.

Libya ordered the release of three journalists who had been missing in the country, including two working with Agence France-Presse and a Getty Images photographer, Getty said.
The news came a day after Libya released four New York Times journalists captured by Libyan forces.

France, US move toward coordinated NATO effort in Libya

(Deutche Welle) - France and the US have agreed on a new structure to coordinate the military operations in Libya. NATO allies have agreed to use their navies to enforce a UN-backed arms embargo, as the fighting continues.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and US President Barack Obama have agreed that NATO's command structure should play a 'key role' in the ongoing military operation in Libya.

However, specifics of this agreement have not yet been agreed upon, including the extent of NATO's role in commanding the operation and what nation would eventually be in charge should NATO take over completely.

"I would expect that over the next several days we will have clarity and a meeting of the minds of all those who are participating in the process," Obama said from El Salvador.

(Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift): It could take days for an agreement, Obama said earlier in the day, NATO had come to the decision to use its forces to enforce a United Nations arms embargo on Libya.

In an effort to find a consensus on who should lead the military action against Libya, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe Tuesday called for the creation of a special committee that would guide the operations. The group, Juppe said, would comprise the foreign ministers from the coalition countries involved in the airstrikes, as well as from the Arab League.

"We should meet in the coming days in Brussels, London or Paris and continue to meet regularly to show clearly that political oversight is there," he said. "Of course the Arab world will find its place," he added.

The initial military operation has included involvement from France, Britain, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Canada.

Juppe said the military operations could stop at any moment, as soon as Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi adhered to all the stipulations of the UN resolution.

Turkey and Russia, meanwhile, continued to denounce the military operation altogether, while Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called for command to pass to NATO.

Germany has announced that some ships and air crews would be withdrawn from NATO missions in the Mediterranean to avoid being pulled into the Libya conflict, as NATO becomes more involved.

Two frigates and two other ships with crews totalling 550 and around 50 additional troops participating in NATO air surveillance would be placed under German command again.

Germany did not object to NATO taking the lead, but Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle reiterated that his country would not send troops to Libya.

Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Tuesday poured scorn on Berlin's decision to abstain in the UN Security Council vote, describing it as a "scandalous mistake" and the government's behaviour as a "farce."

Bildunterschrift: "Germany has forfeited its credibility in the UN and in the Middle East," Fischer wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily.

Western forces launched airstrikes on strongholds of Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi for a third night, while explosions and gunfire were heard again near Al Qathafi's compound in the capital Tripoli on Tuesday.

There were also reports that Al Qathafi's forces were attacking rebels in the northwestern town of Zintan with heavy weapons, as well as shelling the rebel-held city of Misurata. Dozens of people were reported to have been killed.

The US Africa command said that one of its fighter jets had crashed overnight over Libya, reportedly due to mechanical failure. Both crew members had managed to eject and were safe, said a spokeswoman.

(AFP) - Three journalists including two AFP employees who had been held by Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi's forces since the weekend have been released in Tripoli, an AFP journalist said early Wednesday.

Al Qathafi defiant, says Libya 'ready for battle'

(AFP) - British Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards (2nd L) and General David Petraeus, commander of the NATO and US forces in Afghanistan arrive at 10 Downing Street in London.

Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi defiantly claimed in TV comments aired on the fourth day of UN-backed military strikes on Libya that his country is "ready for battle," while Western leaders planned their next steps.

(AFP) - Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi defiantly claimed in TV comments aired on the fourth day of UN-backed military strikes on Libya that his country is "ready for battle," while Western leaders Wednesday planned their next steps.

"We will win this battle," footage showed Al Qathafi telling supporters at his Bab Al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli that was the target of a coalition missile strike.

Early Wednesday, CNN reported that coalition airstrikes were launched overnight near the city of Misurata, east of Tripoli.

Rebels said Tuesday they had been under intense attack in their Misurata enclave, which has been besieged by Al Qathafi's forces for weeks, with four children killed on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama, due in Washington on Wednesday after cutting short a Latin American trip, said he expected "clarity" on the future command structure of allied military operations "over the next several days."

Obama said there has been a "significant reduction" in US military flights over Libya as Western allies try to establish the UN-approved no-fly zone aimed at protecting Libyan civilians.

Fighting raged between forces loyal to Al Qathafi and insurgents on Tuesday, and despite Al Qathafi's boasts, there were reports the Libyan leader may be looking for a way out of the conflict.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told ABC News that people close to Al Qathafi have been contacting Libya's allies worldwide to see how they can "get out of this."

"We've heard about... people close to him reaching out to people that they know around the world -- Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America, beyond - saying what do we do? How do we get out of this?" she said.

Clinton added: "If there is a true opposition in Libya that is trying to assert itself, we're going to give them a much better chance than they had before the Security Council acted."

But as a senior US officer said Al Qathafi forces were still attacking civilians, doubts persisted over the best way to continue the campaign to stop Al Qathafi, and where it was leading.

Coalition forces, led by the United States, France and Britain and including some other European states and Arab country Qatar, are acting under UN Security Council resolution 1973 authorising "all necessary means" to protect civilians.

There is coordination but no unified command, and moves to hand over control of the operation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are dividing the alliance.

Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed that NATO should play a key role in the command structure of the Libya mission, the White House said.

NATO ambassadors resumed talks on Tuesday after "very difficult" discussions on Monday which failed to overcome their divisions.

But a diplomat said they had agreed to use the organisation's naval power to enforce an arms embargo on Libya ordered under UN Resolution 1973.

Obama told a news conference in El Salvador that he believed that Washington will "fairly shortly" be able to say that the goal of imposing a no-fly zone in Libya had been reached.

"I have absolutely no doubt that we will be able to transfer the control of this operation to an international coalition," he added.

Destroying radar and missiles under Al Qathafi's control would pave the way for a no-fly zone that could be patrolled by combat aircraft, with the United States assuming a supporting role, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in Moscow.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that the United States had flown 212 aerial missions against Libya, while coalition allies had conducted 124 such missions.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said future actions of the coalition, which began air strikes on Saturday on Al Qathafi military installations, depend in part on the embattled Libyan leader.

"The military operations could stop at any moment. All it would take is for the Tripoli regime to adhere precisely and completely with UN Security Council resolutions, and to accept a genuine ceasefire," Juppe said.

In reports of fighting Tuesday, residents of Yafran, 130 kilometres (80 miles) south west of Tripoli, said at least nine people had been killed in clashes between the two sides.

But rebels also said they had managed to drive back loyalists and retake the outskirts of the western town of Zintan.

A standoff persisted in eastern Libya, where Al Qathafi forces in and around Ajdabiyah, south of the insurgents' capital of Benghazi, easily fought off attempts by the disorganised and ill-armed rebels to advance.

Obama warned Tuesday that Al Qathafi may still hang onto power, but that a military approach was not the only way Washington can push for his ouster.

Obama warned Tuesday that Al Qathafi may still hang onto power.

The embattled Libyan leader "may try to hunker down and wait it out, even in the face of a no-fly zone," Obama told CNN

"But keep in mind that we don't just have military tools at our disposal in terms of accomplishing Al Qathafi's leaving," he added.

Washington on Tuesday placed sanctions on 14 firms controlled by Libya's National Oil Corp, to cut off sources of funds for the Al Qathafi regime.

World oil prices advanced: in New York, crude for April delivery closed at $104 dollars a barrel, up $1.67, while in London Brent North Sea crude for delivery in May rose 74 cents to $115.70.

Meanwhile, three journalists including two Agence France-Presse employees held by Al Qathafi's forces since the weekend were released in Tripoli, an AFP journalist said early Wednesday. Dave Clark, Roberto Schmidt, and Getty photographer Joe Raedle had been arrested Saturday.

Morgan Strong
Contributing Editor-New York
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