TRIPOLI/CAIRO:
Libya declared a fresh ceasefire on Sunday after a day of bombardment from Western forces seeking to protect civilians from government troops. “The Libyan armed forces ... have issued a command to all military units to safeguard an immediate ceasefire from 1900 GMT this evening,” a Libyan army spokesman said, prompting a statement from UN chief Ban Ki-moon who said that he hoped the Libyan army would “keep its word” on the new ceasefire.
The Pentagon said on Sunday that it questions all statements from the Libyan government, including its claim that it would enter into a ceasefire.
Minutes before the army spokesman made the ceasefire announcement, heavy anti-aircraft gunfire boomed above central Tripoli, followed by sustained machinegun fire. Smoke was seen rising from the direction of the presidential compound in Tripoli on Sunday, shortly after an explosion, witnesses said. The US military insisted though that it was not going to target the Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
Earlier Arab League chief Amr Moussa condemned the “bombardment of civilians” by the allied forces and both the African Union and Turkey urged “restraint” and called for a review of the operational planning involved in the attacks.
Moussa has called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League to discuss Libya. He requested a report into the bombardment which he said had “led to the deaths and injuries of many Libyan civilians”.
A health official said the number of people killed as a result of Western air strikes overnight had risen to 64 from 48, a figure given by Tripoli. However, the US said it has “no indication” of civilian casualties in air strikes by coalition forces over Libya.
Criticism also seemed to be coming from within the US administration, with the House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner calling on President Barack Obama to explain the US mission in Libya and how his administration intends to achieve its goals.
Qaddafi denounced the air strikes saying it amounted to terrorism and vowed to fight to the death.
His government has begun distributing arms to more than one million people and will complete the operation within hours. Jana news agency quoted sources in Libya’s defence ministry as saying they “expected the operation to end in the next hours to arm more than a million men and women.”
A Libyan rebel spokesman told Al Jazeera that the rebel death toll had crossed the figure of 8,000.
Heavy anti-aircraft gunfire was heard in central Tripoli on Sunday night, a Reuters reporter said.
In Berlin, the US Africa Command spokesman Lieutenant Commander James Stockman said missile strikes against Libya hit at least 20 of their 22 targets. “The other two targets are still under assessment,” said Stockman.
“We struck key integrated air defence and surface-to-air missile sites near Tripoli, Misrata and Sirte,” he said. Al-Watyah air base, 170 km southwest of Tripoli, was among the targets, a Libyan military official said. “They tried to attack the (base’s) anti-aircraft defences,” said the official. “Some were damaged.”
However, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the end-game of military action was “very uncertain”, acknowledging that the no-fly zone over Libya could end in a stalemate even though Western warplanes halted an anti-rebel offensive at Benghazi.
Qatari and Italian aircraft are meanwhile poised to join operations against Libya, US and Italian officials said.
More than 3,800 refugees crossed into Egypt from Libya on Saturday, according to UN officials.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 21st, 2011.
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