NATO warplanes bomb Al Qathafi forces in Western Mountains
(Reuters) - NATO warplanes bombed forces loyal to Muammar Al Qathafi in Libya's Western Mountains on Friday at the front line where Al Qathafi's troops retreated two days ago from a rebel advance.
The bombs landed about three km (two miles) east of the village of Al-Qawalish, said Abdul Wahad, a rebel fighter manning the last checkpoint on the eastern edge of the village.
He said they struck four times in the mid-afternoon.
Rebels forced Al Qathafi troops from the village on Wednesday in one of their biggest advances in weeks, pushing down the highway toward the strategic town of Gharyan, which controls the main road south out of the capital Tripoli about 100 km (60 miles) away.
Senior Rebel Is Doubtful Al Qathafi Can Be Routed
(Aljazeera.net) - For months now, military leaders in the rebel capital, Benghazi, have boldly predicted lightning advances by their fighters and an imminent rout of the forces loyal to Col. Muammar Al Qathafi in Tripoli that would finally snuff out his brutal four-decade rule.
The rebels have made some advances in the west in recent days, taking a small village in the Nafusa Mountains and pushing westward some distance from Misurata toward Tripoli.
But a senior rebel military officer here in the mountains who said he defected last month from the Libyan Army called the prospects of a collapse by Colonel Al Qathafi’s forces highly unlikely.
The officer, Col. Mohammed Ali Ethish, who now commands opposition fighters here, said that even if the rebels were able to reach Tripoli, shortages of fuel, personnel and weapons made it unlikely that they would try to invade or march on the heavily fortified city.
A more realistic possibility, he said, is for rebels and others within the city to rise up against Colonel Al Qathafi. “I hope that when we do reach the borders of Tripoli, the revolutionaries there free it,” Colonel Ethish said. “If we don’t go in with an organized army, there’s going to be a huge mess.”
In the meantime, he said, the mountain fighters were focused on the more modest goal of winning cities in the region, either by persuading Colonel Al Qathafi’s soldiers to defect or by driving them out in battle.
His candid comments raised the possibility of a protracted endgame in the Libyan conflict. They also provided little comfort to NATO countries that face increasing pressure to end the bombing campaign and seem desperate to find a quick exit, either by arming the rebels or by killing Colonel Al Qathafi with air strikes.
Although Colonel Ethish said he was speaking for the fighters from Rujban, rebel fighters from other mountain towns also said that talk of a Tripoli offensive was misplaced or premature because they had their hands full on several fronts.
To the east, they have been fighting in the city of Kikla, where at least five rebel fighters were killed in clashes this week, commanders said. On Wednesday, the rebels pushed past Kikla to capture Colonel Al Qathafi’s positions in a small village, Qawalish. At least 13 pro-Al Qathafi soldiers and seven rebels were killed in that fighting.
North of Kikla, on the plain that leads toward Tripoli, the rebels have been engaged in a running battle with Colonel Al Qathafi’s forces in Bir al-Ghanem and have so far been unable to advance, despite NATO’s repeated bombings of the area.
Colonel Al Qathafi’s soldiers also control lowland towns stretching from the border with Tunisia to Qasr al-Hajj, leaving rebel control of the border crossing exposed and vulnerable to attack.
Colonel Ethish said the rebels were low on ammunition for the weapons they rely on in the quick, fluid battles in the mountains, including antiaircraft guns and small rocket-launchers.
He also said he had seen no evidence on the battlefield of the weapons the French said they had provided to the rebels.
In several rebel-held mountain towns, new training centres are being constructed, with the aim of building the kind of disciplined forces that can cope with any chaos that follows the war, the colonel said.
In Kikla, on the site of a former teachers college for women, hundreds of recruits will be trained to serve as a “protection force” for civilians in the event that Colonel Al Qathafi leaves power, according to a volunteer, a small-business owner who lives in the United States and who asked not to be identified because he has family in territory controlled by Colonel Al Qathafi’s forces.
“A lot of people are going to have a lot of anger,” he said. “We want to keep it under control.”
Colonel Ethish said a centre being built in Rujban, in trailers that once stored food, would be for training special forces troops who would also serve a policing function if Colonel Al Qathafi left power.
A soldier since high school, Colonel Ethish, 57, said he had worked most recently for the Libyan Ministry of Defence, heading offices for infantrymen and for technology at a base in Jufra, a province in central Libya.
He is originally from Rujban, and in the past few months he traveled back and forth between the military base and the mountains by lying at checkpoints and saying he was going to Tripoli.
He said he and other officers were isolated during the revolution from the war effort. Power and information were concentrated among Colonel Al Qathafi’s sons and close allies who commanded elite brigades.
Colonel Ethish said he had seen evidence that mercenaries were used in the early days of the conflict, but he refused to say exactly where they were from, citing diplomatic efforts to cut off Colonel Al Qathafi from his allies.
“I’m sorry to say they were from another Arab country,” he said.
When it came time for him to defect, his family left everything in its home in Tripoli, and he left Jufra, again lying about his destination. In the mountains, he joined scores of other defecting officers, who still seem to be adjusting to their role as revolutionaries.
At a recent news conference announcing dozens of defections, for instance, the officers were silent when the rebel national anthem was played, seeming not to know the words.
Colonel Ethish said that several other colleagues were ready to defect but were concerned for their families and “were waiting for the right time.” His claims about his own defection and his colleagues’ intentions were impossible to confirm.
But he makes their defections sound inevitable. Speaking of his colleagues at the Ministry of Defence base in Jufra, he said: “Everyone is bored. They watch Al Jazeera. They’ve lost trust in Al Qathafi.”
NATO says it’s not involved in helping Libyan rebels advance as Libyan government claims
(Washington Post) - NATO denied a Libyan government charge Thursday that the alliance is intentionally using its airstrikes to assist rebel advances, saying it is sticking to its mandate to protect civilians.
Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken, an alliance spokesman in Naples, Italy, said NATO is “not involved in the ground battles,” although he acknowledged the alliance is tracking the fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Al Qathafi.
Libya’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim accused NATO earlier Thursday of intensifying its bombing campaign and backing foreign mercenaries to lay the groundwork for an advance by rebels trying to topple Al Qathafi’s regime.
In an early morning interview with The Associated Press, Kaim said increased bombings in recent days represent the “final phase” of NATO’s air campaign. But he said the push will fail and that civilians will be the ones to pay the price.
Kaim said NATO targeted police checkpoints in the Nafusa mountains southwest of Tripoli ahead of a rebel advance toward the village of Qawalish, which rebel fighters said they seized Wednesday.
A fuel depot in the key eastern oil town of Brega was also destroyed, Kaim said. NATO said it hit equipment used to refuel government military vehicles.
The intensified barrage of airstrikes, particularly in the west of the country, is focused on targeting civilian infrastructure and police checkpoints, he said.
He also alleged that NATO was increasing efforts to provide weapons to rebel fighters.
“The aim of these attacks is to help the rebels to advance. But I assure you, it will be another failure for them,” he said.
Kaim also claimed Libyan forces have evidence that Colombian mercenaries funded by the West and its Arab allies have joined the rebel fighters trying to advance toward the capital Tripoli from the western rebel-held city of Misurata.
Some of the Colombian fighters were killed in clashes near Misurata on Wednesday, he said. While Kaim did not provide evidence to substantiate the allegation, he said it would soon be shown to journalists based in Tripoli.
NATO cast doubt on the charge that mercenaries were involved.
“We’ve not seen anything to indicate this allegation might be true,” said NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu. “But what we have seen are repeated consistent and credible reports that Al Qathafi’s forces have been using mercenaries, not just now or in recent months but for years and decades.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon talked with Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi by phone on Wednesday about the “urgent need” to end the fighting and “work out a transition that could bring peace to all Libyans,” according to a summary of the conversation.
The Libyan official agreed to Ban’s suggestion that his special envoy for Libya Abdelilah Al-Khatib be received in Tripoli soon for urgent consultations, said the summary provided by Ban’s office.
NATO began airstrikes against Libya in March. The coalition and its Arab allies are operating under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians.
Some countries in the coalition have interpreted that mandate broadly, with France acknowledging it has provided weapons to rebels operating in the mountains and other countries providing non-lethal aid to rebel-held areas.
Libyan officials on Monday showed journalists assault rifles and ammunition they claimed had been shipped to rebels by the wealthy Gulf Arab state of Qatar.
NATO late last week announced it had begun ramping up its airstrikes on military targets in the western part of Libya. It said it is targeting government forces in cities and along “major lines of communication.”
Bracken, the NATO spokesman, said military operations have been running continuously over the past day in the Nafusa mountains southwest of Tripoli.
“We have seen NATO round-the-clock operations resulting in the removal of more than 60 targets” in and around the mountains, Bracken said.
He said another 18 targets, including a tunnel complex used to resupply government troops, were hit in the vicinity of Gharyan, a gateway city to the mountains about 50 miles (80 kilometres) south of the capital.
A string of victories by relatively small bands of mountain rebels has left them in control of most of the mountain range, bringing them within about 100 miles (160 kilometres) of Tripoli. The advances have energized a rebel campaign that is largely deadlocked on fronts east of the capital.
In Rome, Italian defence minister Ignazio La Russa said the country, Libya’s former colonial ruler, is cutting back its participation in NATO’s campaign by removing an aircraft carrier from the region and pulling thousands of troops home.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi is under pressure from his key ally the Northern League, which has opposed the war because of the cost and fears of an influx of migrants.
After a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Berlusconi said he had always been against the war but had his “hands tied” once the U.N. authorized a no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians.
One rebel fighter was killed in shelling by government forces west of the rebel-held city of Misurata, Abdel-Wahab Mletan of the city’s media committee told The Associated Press.
The shelling took place in Dafniya, a semi-rural area west of Misurata, 140 miles (225 kilometres) west of Tripoli. Eighteen rebel fighters were killed in heavy government shelling in the same area Wednesday.
Also on Thursday, Human Rights Watch said government troops laid land mines in at least three places in the western Nafusa mountains.
It said the three minefields are around the village of Qawalish, which rebel forces seized Wednesday.
The New York-based group said teams are working to remove the mines and called on the Libyan government to stop using such weapons.
Political efforts forge ahead over Libya crisis
(Xinhua) - More international manoeuvres unfolded Thursday to seek an early end to the fighting and turmoil in Libya, while NATO said its intervention has garnered additional support.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed the current situation in the volatile North African country over phone with Libyan Prime Minister Al Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi.
"They discussed the urgent need to find a way out of the current fighting and alleviate the dire humanitarian situation," said Ban's spokesman, adding that the two also talked about how to work out a transition that could bring peace to all Libyans.
Ban urged support for UN Special Envoy for Libya Abdul Ilah Al-Khatib.
The Libyan prime minister agreed to Ban's suggestion that Al-Khatib be received in Tripoli at an early date for urgent consultations, said the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the Arab League (AL) announced in Cairo that its Secretary-General Nabil el-Arabi would head a delegation to the Turkish city of Istanbul next week for the fourth meeting of what is called the Libya Contact Group.
During the conference, the AL chief would expound the bloc's vision and suggestions for solving the crisis, said AL deputy secretary-general Ahmed Bin Heli.
The AL, Heli added, was keeping contact with both the Libyan government and the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) in a bid to find out a proper solution.
The contact group, which includes the United States, some European and Middle East countries and a number of global and regional organizations, is working to help finance the NTC and maintain essential public services for the Libyan people.
Also on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised the efforts of the African Union (AU) in seeking an end to the Libya crisis, and pledged to stand behind the African organization's peace-making initiatives.
The AU, which is critic of NATO's military mission in Libya, has for months been trying to formulate a peace roadmap acceptable to both of Libya's conflicting sides, insisting that military intervention only complicates the situation.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said Thursday that "quite a few" NATO countries had pledged more support for the military alliance's mission in Libya.
"In this morning's North Atlantic Council, quite a few allies made additional contributions to the mission, so in terms of staff and resources, we remain fully confident that all allies are continuing to contribute to this mission in the ways that they can," Lungescu told a press briefing at the NATO headquarters.
"They continue to support it both in terms of political will and contribution in assets and resources to see it through," she said, without offering more details.
NATO took over command of the Libya mission from the United States in late March. Now half of its 28 members are contributing forces to the Libya operation, but only eight have agreed to launch air raids.
Meanwhile, U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday defeated a measure that would prohibit the use of defence spending to continue U.S. participation in the NATO-led mission in Libya.
Yet the chamber also adopted a measure barring the Pentagon from providing military equipment, training, advice or support to Libyan rebels.
Libya stalemate is bad news for Tunisia
(UPI) -Signs of a military and political stalemate in neighbouring Libya have dashed Tunisians' hope of an early economic recovery and return to employment for the country's restive youth.
Tunisia's high-earning tourism industry is at a virtual standstill because the conflict between the Libyan government and rebel forces has kept away tourists who canceled when Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in the Jasmine Revolution in January.
The crisis in Libya affected Tunis in different ways, U.N. data indicated. By last count, more than 250,000 Libyan nationals have sought shelter and thousands more will follow if allowed.
International interest in Tunisia after the Jasmine Revolution has focused on the likely role of radical Islamists in the emerging administration, Marc Lynch of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University said in a Foreign Policy Web site article.
More worrying than the Islamic threat, however, is unemployment and other economic problems since Ben Ali's departure, researcher Francis Ghiles wrote in an analysis on the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera.
Economic challenges facing Tunisia, above all unemployment, are more serious than the question of Islamism and call for action from the West, Ghiles wrote.
Regional instability resulting from a prolonged military campaign in Libya presents a serious strategic threat to its northern neighbour, Tunisia.
"The pictures of fighting in Libya being flashed across Western television screens are complicating the task of the Tunisian government" as it seeks to convince European tourists, a major source of foreign exchange earnings over many years, to return.
After Ben Ali's departure from Tunis and the outbreak of conflict in Libya, tourism arrivals fell 42 percent to 928,000 in April when compared with the same period in 2010. Tourism losses so far run more than $1.2 billion.
Ben Ali was tried in absentia and sentenced to 15 1/2 years in jail for possessing illegal drugs and weapons.
Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi were earlier sentenced to 35 years in prison for embezzlement and misuse of state funds. He fled to Saudi Arabia where he lives despite international calls for his extradition to face the charges.
Tunisia has also been deprived of remittances and other income from Libya, estimated at more than $1 billion and Ghiles cited professional estimates of material losses in Tunisia. The Jasmine Revolution unrest caused damage worth $2 billion to buildings and infrastructure.
A further $600 million was added to Tunisia's imports of oil and products and foodstuffs, both moving upward in international markets.
Also absent from the Tunisian economy are big-spending Libyans who earlier visited frequently to benefit from the country's liberal atmosphere and night life.
A survey by Ernst and Young said many Tunisian businessmen are more worried about the fallout from Libya than from the current situation in Tunisia.
Foreign direct investment declined 24.1 percent to $420 million during the first four months of the year and industrial production fell 9.4 percent. Production in the mining sector dropped by 60 percent, due to continued strikes.
Gross domestic product fell 3.3 percent during the first three months and isn't expected to be more than 1 percent for 2011.
Tunisian unemployment rose from an estimated 14 percent at the end of 2010 to 19 percent and is said to be in excess of 800,000.
Tunisian politicians, Arab diplomats and European lobbyists have said the European Union did too little, too late in Tunisia.
Libyan rebels said to advance in west
(L.A. Times) - Rebel fighters in the Nafusa Mountains say they've driven out Al Qathafi's forces from Qawalish. Al Qathafi's regime announces treason charges against rebel leaders.
Even as Libyan rebels reported driving government forces from another mountain town in western Libya on Wednesday, Muammar Al Qathafi's regime in Tripoli said it would put 21 rebel leaders on trial for treason.
The announcement of capital charges against the rebel leadership was largely symbolic. The insurgents control most of eastern Libya, far from government reach, and are making incremental advances in the Nafusa Mountains west of Tripoli, the capital.
But with the two sides for the most part locked in a battlefield stalemate, they have resorted to other means to seek political or diplomatic advantage.
As government prosecutors in Tripoli announced that treason convictions could carry death sentences, tens of thousands of rebel supporters marched through the rebel stronghold, Benghazi, vowing to crush and punish Al Qathafi and his confederates.
Prosecutors said the accused rebels, including the leader of the Transitional National Council in Benghazi, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, would be tried in absentia. The charges "amount to treason of the homeland of Libya," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said.
If the men are convicted, Judge Khalifa Isa Khalifa told reporters in Tripoli, the Libyan government would seek international assistance to ensure "that they are brought to justice."
Rebel spokesman Jalal Galal, who was at the citywide demonstration in Benghazi, did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the charges.
The protesters in Benghazi were buoyed by rebel claims that they had taken the mountain town of Qawalish early Wednesday.
At the same time, rebel supporters mocked the indictments issued by Al Qathafi, who was indicted himself on charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court last week.
"Al Qathafi is desperate; he knows the end is near," said Yusef Zaidi, a rebel supporter who said he escaped from Tripoli after rebels drove government forces from most of eastern Libya in February.
Also indicted by the ICC were the Libyan leader's son Seif al-Islam Al Qathafi and intelligence chief Abdullah Senoussi.
The Nafusa Mountains, near the Tunisian border, have been under opposition control for months. Rebels at the eastern end of the range pushed Al Qathafi's forces out of Qawalish, southeast of the rebel-controlled towns of Kikla and Qala, Arab news reports said. Kikla was captured by rebels in late May.
Volunteer fighters grouped into 15-man teams have been trying for weeks to dislodge Al Qathafi's forces from Qawalish, from which they mounted rocket and artillery attacks on the rugged rebel-controlled territory.
Control of Qawalish would allow rebels to advance due east toward Gharyan, a major military garrison town as well as a hotbed of anti-Al Qathafi sentiment. It is about 60 miles south of the capital on the nation's main north-south highway.
A number of the rebel fighters in the Nafusa Mountains hail from Gharyan and hope to return to their hometown.
"No one told me to come and do this," Abdul Taif, 19, of Gharyan and a first-year student of engineering in London, said in a recent interview in Kikla. "I am here to help liberate my country."
Since late March, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has attacked military and command and control targets under a U.N. Security Council resolution designed to protect civilians from government attack.
NATO has flown more than 14,000 sorties, the organization said Wednesday, including 134 on Tuesday, and has destroyed 2,700 military targets. Among targets hit Tuesday were four tanks and two military vehicles near Gharyan, NATO said.
Even so, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Al Qathafi's forces were still potent.
"Without NATO there would be a massacre," he said. "Al Qathafi would be free to use his tanks and missiles on towns and markets. We will not let that happen."
Ban speaks of transition with Libyan PM
(UPI) - There is no immediate end in sight to the conflict in Libya though negotiations on a peaceful resolution are under way, the U.N. secretary-general said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke by phone with Libyan Prime Minister Ali Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi. Both leaders expressed a need for the fighting to end in order to usher in a peaceful transition in the country.
Both leaders agreed that Abdul Illah al-Khatib, the U.N. special envoy to Libya, should have urgent consultations on the crisis in Tripoli.
Ban said in a statement that both sides agreed Khatib would meet with Libyan leaders in Tripoli "at an early date" but stressed it was premature to discuss a permanent cease-fire.
"We are far from reaching an agreement to end the conflict, but a negotiation process is under way," he told reporters in Geneva.
NATO forces under a U.N. Security Council mandate are enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya in order to protect civilians from attacks by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi. Ban said, however, that the United Nations would play a "critical" role in managing any cease-fire and the transition to a free and democratic Libya.
Ban said it was critical that the international community express a united voice when dealing with any eventual Libyan political transition.
"It is imperative that all efforts to end the conflict be closely coordinated," he said.
Clinton to visit Turkey for talks on Libya next week; then to Greece, India
(Washington Post) - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to Turkey next week for talks on developments in the Libyan conflict. She will then visit Greece and India.
The State Department said Clinton will leave Washington Thursday for Istanbul to attend a meeting of the international contact group on Libya.
The group includes more than 40 nations that are participating in or are backing the NATO mission supporting opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi. With Turkish officials in Ankara, Clinton will also discuss Syria and the Mideast peace process.
After Turkey, Clinton will visit Greece for discussions on topics that will include that country’s financial crisis. She will then move on to Delhi, India, where issues such as counterterrorism, defence and high-tech trade are on the agenda.
In India, Clinton will also visit Chennai, becoming the first secretary of state to visit the port city.
Morgan Strong,
- Contributing Editor, New York |
