TRIPOLI, April 2 (AFP) - Fighting flared around the rebel-held city of Misrata and air strikes were reported elsewhere in Libya, after Muammar Gaddafi’s regime rejected a rebel offer of a ceasefire.
The US military was poised to withdraw its combat jets and Tomahawk cruise missiles from the air campaign against Libya's regime starting this weekend, as NATO allies take the lead in bombing Gaddafi’s forces.
The move follows pledges by President Barack Obama to quickly shift command of the operation to NATO, with the US military playing a supporting role -- providing planes for mid-air refueling, jamming and surveillance.
Coalition forces, meanwhile, strafed positions held by loyalist forces in the Al Khums and Al Rojban regions east and southwest of the capital Tripoli late Friday, according to Libyan state television.
An Al Khums resident told AFP he heard explosions coming from a local naval base, about 120 kilometres east of the capital, which had been bombed by coalition forces earlier.
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| Rebels run from explosions during a mortar barrage fired by troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi outside Brega in eastern Libya. Reuters |
Al Rojban is southwest of Tripoli and several towns in the mountainous area are controlled by rebel forces.
Forces loyal to Gaddafi also attacked the rebel-held city of Misrata with tanks and rocket fire, a rebel spokesman said.
In the rebel bastion of Benghazi, Transitional National Council leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said the opposition was ready for a truce, provided Gaddafi’s forces end their assaults on rebel-held cities.
But government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim rejected the offer, saying Gaddafi’s forces would not withdraw from towns they control.
“The rebels never offered peace. They don't offer peace; they are making impossible demands,” Ibrahim told reporters, calling the truce offer a “trick.”
“We will not leave our cities. We are the government, not them,” he said, adding, however, that the government was always ready to negotiate and wanted peace.
Asked about the truce offer, White House spokesman Jay Carney appeared to indicate that the Obama's administration did not want the conflict in Libya to end with Gaddafi still in power.
Abdul Jalil's offer came two days after rebels were driven out of a string of key oil terminals in eastern Libya they had twice seized during the weeks-old revolt aimed at toppling Gaddafi’s 41-year-old regime.
“We agree on a ceasefire on the condition that our brothers in the western cities have freedom of expression and that the forces besieging the cities withdraw,” he told reporters after meeting UN special envoy Abdul Ilah Khatib.
He added, however, that the revolution still aimed to topple the regime.
The rebels' call for heavy armaments to match the superior firepower of Gaddafi’s army, meanwhile, have been greeted with little enthusiam by western powers.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates asserted the rebels needed training more than guns but suggested other nations do that job.
His French counterpart Gerard Longuet said providing weapons was not part of the UN mandate, and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen also ruled out such a move.
“We are there to protect the Libyan people, not to arm people,” Rasmussen said.
The rebels said they have signed a deal with Qatar to market their crude oil abroad in exchange for food, medicine and -- they hope -- weapons.
Ali al-Tarhoni, a senior member of the Transitional National Council in charge of oil and finance, said that under a “barter” deal aimed at circumventing international sanctions, Qatar would market the oil and buy humanitarian supplies for the rebels.
The rebels hoped to use oil revenues to procure weapons -- “any kind of arms we can get to,” he added. |
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