Libyan conflict: Rebels call for foreign help
Qaddafi forces attack rebel town; rebels call for foreign air strikes, name leader.
BREGA/LIBYA:
Muammar Qaddafi launched a land and air offensive to retake territory in Libya’s east at dawn on Wednesday, sparking a rebel call for foreign air strikes on African mercenaries they said were helping him stay in power.
Government troops briefly captured Brega, an oil export terminal, before being driven back by rebels who have held the town 800 km (500 miles) east of Tripoli for about a week, rebel officers said, adding they were ready to move westwards against Qaddafi’s forces if he refused to quit.
Further bombing raids near the oil terminals were carried out in the afternoon. Estimates of the death toll during the day ranged between five and 14.
There has been talk among the international community of the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, but on Wednesday US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said such a move would first require an attack.
“Let’s just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defences ... and then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down,” Defence Secretary Robert Gates told a congressional hearing.
Opposition names leader
In the opposition bastion of Benghazi, a rebel National Libyan Council called for UN-backed air strikes on African mercenaries it said Qaddafi was using against his own people.
“We call for specific attacks on strongholds of these mercenaries,” said council spokesman Hafiz Ghoga. “The presence of any foreign forces on Libyan soil is strongly opposed. There is a big difference between this and strategic air strikes.”
Any sort of foreign military involvement in Arab countries is a sensitive topic for Western nations uncomfortably aware that Iraq suffered years of bloodletting and al Qaeda violence after a 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.
In a possible response to Western hints that the opposition needs to unify to facilitate rebel links with outside powers, Ghoga added that a former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel, Jalil, would be chairman of the Council which will have 30 members and be based in Benghazi before moving later to Tripoli.
Across Libya, tribal leaders, officials, military officers and army units have defected to the rebel cause and say they are becoming more organised, however, Tripoli remains a stronghold for Qaddafi.
Washington says it will keep pressure on Qaddafi to quit, and is moving ships and planes closer to Libya in what is widely seen as a symbolic show of force. On Wednesday two US amphibious assault ships, the USS Kearsarge and the USS Ponce, passed through Egypt’s Suez Canal arriving in the Mediterranean.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 3rd, 2011.
Muammar Qaddafi launched a land and air offensive to retake territory in Libya’s east at dawn on Wednesday, sparking a rebel call for foreign air strikes on African mercenaries they said were helping him stay in power.
Government troops briefly captured Brega, an oil export terminal, before being driven back by rebels who have held the town 800 km (500 miles) east of Tripoli for about a week, rebel officers said, adding they were ready to move westwards against Qaddafi’s forces if he refused to quit.
Further bombing raids near the oil terminals were carried out in the afternoon. Estimates of the death toll during the day ranged between five and 14.
There has been talk among the international community of the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, but on Wednesday US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said such a move would first require an attack.
“Let’s just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defences ... and then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down,” Defence Secretary Robert Gates told a congressional hearing.
Opposition names leader
In the opposition bastion of Benghazi, a rebel National Libyan Council called for UN-backed air strikes on African mercenaries it said Qaddafi was using against his own people.
“We call for specific attacks on strongholds of these mercenaries,” said council spokesman Hafiz Ghoga. “The presence of any foreign forces on Libyan soil is strongly opposed. There is a big difference between this and strategic air strikes.”
Any sort of foreign military involvement in Arab countries is a sensitive topic for Western nations uncomfortably aware that Iraq suffered years of bloodletting and al Qaeda violence after a 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.
In a possible response to Western hints that the opposition needs to unify to facilitate rebel links with outside powers, Ghoga added that a former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel, Jalil, would be chairman of the Council which will have 30 members and be based in Benghazi before moving later to Tripoli.
Across Libya, tribal leaders, officials, military officers and army units have defected to the rebel cause and say they are becoming more organised, however, Tripoli remains a stronghold for Qaddafi.
Washington says it will keep pressure on Qaddafi to quit, and is moving ships and planes closer to Libya in what is widely seen as a symbolic show of force. On Wednesday two US amphibious assault ships, the USS Kearsarge and the USS Ponce, passed through Egypt’s Suez Canal arriving in the Mediterranean.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 3rd, 2011.