TRIPOLI, April 23 (AFP) - NATO launched fresh air raids on Tripoli today as Muammar Gaddafi’s government said it was ready to withdraw from Misrata and let tribes deal with rebels in the besieged city.
The strikes hit a patch of bare ground opposite Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya residence in central Tripoli and what looked like a bunker. Authorities who took foreign correspondents there said they were “a parking lot” and “sewers.”
They were launched after deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim said the Libyan army had been given an “ultimatum” to stop the rebellion in the western city, 200 kilometres (120 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.
“There was an ultimatum to the Libyan army: if they cannot solve the problem in Misrata, then the people from (the neighbouring towns of) Zliten, Tarhuna, Bani Walid and Tawargha will move in and they will talk to the rebels,” Kaim told journalists in the capital.
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| US Rebuplican senator John McCain (2nd R) tours to the Libyan rebel headquarters in their eastern stronghold city of Benghazi on April 22, 2011. McCain is the highest-ranking US politician to visit Libya's rebel-held east since a popular uprising began against Moamer Kadhafi's rule in mid-February. AFP |
“If they don't surrender, then they will engage them in a fight.”
Misrata has for weeks been the scene of deadly urban guerrilla fighting between rebels and forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.
Kaim accused Washington of “new crimes against humanity” after US President Barack Obama authorised deployment of missile-carrying drone warplanes over Libya for what his administration called “humanitarian” reasons.
He also hit out at a senior US senator's visit to Benghazi, the opposition bastion in the east, saying the Transitional National Council (TNC) did not represent Libyans and had “no authority on the ground.”
John McCain, a Republican senator who lost the presidential race to Obama in 2008, earlier held talks with TNC leaders, urging the international community to arm and recognise the rebel body as the “legitimate voice” of Libyans.
Rebels bogged down in their bid to oust Gaddafi hailed the US decision to deploy armed drones over Libya. “We hope that this can bring some relief to the people in Misrata,” rebels spokesman Mustafa Gheriani told AFP of the rebel-held western city that Kadhafi's forces have pounded for more than six weeks, killing hundreds.
In Tripoli today, anti-aircraft fire rang out as ambulance sirens wailed. Al-Libya television said the capital was “now the target of raids by the barbaric crusader colonialist aggressor,” a term used for Western forces.
The official JANA news agency reported two people died in NATO air raids late Friday on the Zintan region southwest of Tripoli where stepped up fighting has taken place with rebels who hold several towns.
As NATO warplanes overflew Gaddafi’s stronghold throughout the day, an official from the alliance said the unmanned drones and their precision would give the coalition forces more options, especially in urban warfare.
“The use of drones will make it easier to target Gaddafi forces in crowded urban areas. A vehicle like the Predator, that can get down lower and can get IDs, will better help us carrying out the mission with precision and care,” the NATO official said.
The US military's top officer, meanwhile, said allied air strikes had destroyed 30 to 40 percent of Gaddafi’s forces and noted the conflict was progressing into a stalemate. “I am sure that NATO forces will continue to attrite the military capability of the regime forces,” Admiral Michael Mullen said in Baghdad.
Rebels have complained civilians are being killed in places like Misrata, where entire streets have been pulverised by gunfire, shelling and cluster bombs. |
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