Teh One Who Knocks
03-29-2011, 01:13 PM
by Imed Lamloum
http://i.imgur.com/RB5sx.jpg
TRIPOLI (AFP) – Colonel Moamer Kadhafi urged world powers meeting Tuesday in London to end their "barbaric" offensive against his oil-rich country as his forces beat back a rebel push on his home town Sirte.
The Libyan strongman likened the NATO-led air strikes targeting his artillery and ground forces to military campaigns launched by Adolf Hitler during World War II.
"Stop your barbaric, unjust offensive on Libya," Kadhafi said in the letter published by the state news agency Jana.
"Leave Libya for the Libyans. You are committing genocide against a peaceful people and a developing nation," he said in the letter to the London meeting of more than 35 countries to map out a post-Kadhafi future for the north African state.
"It seems that you in Europe and America don't realise the hellish, barbaric (military) offensive which compares... to Hitler's campaigns," Kadhafi said.
The air offensive was launched on March 19 by Britain, France and the United States to enforce a UN no-fly zone over Libya and to protect civilians under attack by Kadhafi's forces.
AFP reporters said rebels in eastern Libya retreated Tuesday 40 kilometres (25 miles) from their frontline positions to Nofilia, 100 kilometres from Sirte.
The rebels were pummelled by loyalist forces Monday at the village of Harawa, 60 kilometres from Sirte and came under sustained fire again on Tuesday, which triggered a stampede of rebel fighters, many fleeing aboard their pickup trucks.
Rebels told AFP they would wait "for Sarkozy planes to strike" before advancing on Sirte -- a reference to warplanes from the French government.
Western strikes bolstered the rebels, allowing them to overrun the strategic town of Ajdabiya further east on Saturday, but a 24-hour lull in the air strikes in eastern Libya has left lightly armed rebels exposed to the Kadhafi loyalists' long range weapons.
A rebel spokeman, meanwhile, said tanks and troops loyal to Kadhafi swept through rebel-held Misrata on Tuesday, firing shells as they attacked Libya's third city, 214 kilometres (132 miles) east of Tripoli.
A doctor at a hospital in Misrata said Kadhafi's forces have killed at least 142 people and wounded more than 1,400 others in an offensive on the city launched on March 18.
Rebels also said a hospital ship was expected to dock Tuesday in Misrata.
"It is a floating hospital that is being escorted by NATO that was delayed," a rebel spokesman, rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said in the insurgents' stronghold of Benghazi.
Abdulmolah also told AFP that the international meeting in London, which included seven Arab states, should decide to put Kadhafi on trial for crimes against humanity and not offer him exile.
"He must be charged for crimes against the Libyan people," Shamsiddin said. "This is non-negotiable."
The head of the rebel's "emergency relief committee", Mahmud Jibril, was attending the London meeting to set out the positions of the Transitional National Council (TNC), Abdulmolah said.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for Kadhafi to face the International Criminal Court but refused to rule out the possibility of offering the Libyan leader a safe corridor out of the country.
Hague's comments came amid reports that a possible exile plan could be discussed. Britain, France, Germany and the United States have agreed that the London talks, due to start at 1400 GMT, should aid "the political transition in Libya," said a French presidency statement.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said ahead of the meeting that the current regime had lost all legitimacy.
"Kadhafi must therefore go immediately. We call on all his followers to leave him before it is too late," a joint statement said.
On the eve of the London gathering, US President Barack Obama Monday urged the international community to support "a transition to the future that the Libyan people deserve."
"Even after Kadhafi does leave power, 40 years of tyranny has left Libya fractured and without strong civil institutions," Obama warned.
"The transition to a legitimate government that is responsive to the Libyan people will be a difficult task," he added, saying it was a challenge for both the international community and the Libyan people.
Obama staunchly defended his decision to pound the Kadhafi's troops in a UN-mandated bid to protect civilians.
But he cautioned the military campaign was not aimed at ousting the veteran Libyan leader by force and forcing regime change.
"To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq," Obama said. "If we tried to overthrow Kadhafi by force, our coalition would splinter. We would likely have to put US troops on the ground, or risk killing many civilians from the air.
Coalition warplanes were again in action late Monday after darkness fell, bombing regime targets on the central coast and in the west, but US officials denied the military action was intended directly to help the rebels.
Libya's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim accused the coalition forces of wanting to cut the country in two.
"The tactic of the coalition is to lead to a stalemate to cut the country in two, which means that the civil war is a continuous war, the start of a new Somalia, a very dangerous situation," he told Italian television Rai Uno late Monday.
US Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the US military's Joint Staff, said the US operations were only in support of the UN-backed resolutions to protect Libyan civilians.
"We're not in direct support of the opposition, that's not part of our mandate and we're not coordinating with the opposition," he said.
http://i.imgur.com/RB5sx.jpg
TRIPOLI (AFP) – Colonel Moamer Kadhafi urged world powers meeting Tuesday in London to end their "barbaric" offensive against his oil-rich country as his forces beat back a rebel push on his home town Sirte.
The Libyan strongman likened the NATO-led air strikes targeting his artillery and ground forces to military campaigns launched by Adolf Hitler during World War II.
"Stop your barbaric, unjust offensive on Libya," Kadhafi said in the letter published by the state news agency Jana.
"Leave Libya for the Libyans. You are committing genocide against a peaceful people and a developing nation," he said in the letter to the London meeting of more than 35 countries to map out a post-Kadhafi future for the north African state.
"It seems that you in Europe and America don't realise the hellish, barbaric (military) offensive which compares... to Hitler's campaigns," Kadhafi said.
The air offensive was launched on March 19 by Britain, France and the United States to enforce a UN no-fly zone over Libya and to protect civilians under attack by Kadhafi's forces.
AFP reporters said rebels in eastern Libya retreated Tuesday 40 kilometres (25 miles) from their frontline positions to Nofilia, 100 kilometres from Sirte.
The rebels were pummelled by loyalist forces Monday at the village of Harawa, 60 kilometres from Sirte and came under sustained fire again on Tuesday, which triggered a stampede of rebel fighters, many fleeing aboard their pickup trucks.
Rebels told AFP they would wait "for Sarkozy planes to strike" before advancing on Sirte -- a reference to warplanes from the French government.
Western strikes bolstered the rebels, allowing them to overrun the strategic town of Ajdabiya further east on Saturday, but a 24-hour lull in the air strikes in eastern Libya has left lightly armed rebels exposed to the Kadhafi loyalists' long range weapons.
A rebel spokeman, meanwhile, said tanks and troops loyal to Kadhafi swept through rebel-held Misrata on Tuesday, firing shells as they attacked Libya's third city, 214 kilometres (132 miles) east of Tripoli.
A doctor at a hospital in Misrata said Kadhafi's forces have killed at least 142 people and wounded more than 1,400 others in an offensive on the city launched on March 18.
Rebels also said a hospital ship was expected to dock Tuesday in Misrata.
"It is a floating hospital that is being escorted by NATO that was delayed," a rebel spokesman, rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said in the insurgents' stronghold of Benghazi.
Abdulmolah also told AFP that the international meeting in London, which included seven Arab states, should decide to put Kadhafi on trial for crimes against humanity and not offer him exile.
"He must be charged for crimes against the Libyan people," Shamsiddin said. "This is non-negotiable."
The head of the rebel's "emergency relief committee", Mahmud Jibril, was attending the London meeting to set out the positions of the Transitional National Council (TNC), Abdulmolah said.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for Kadhafi to face the International Criminal Court but refused to rule out the possibility of offering the Libyan leader a safe corridor out of the country.
Hague's comments came amid reports that a possible exile plan could be discussed. Britain, France, Germany and the United States have agreed that the London talks, due to start at 1400 GMT, should aid "the political transition in Libya," said a French presidency statement.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said ahead of the meeting that the current regime had lost all legitimacy.
"Kadhafi must therefore go immediately. We call on all his followers to leave him before it is too late," a joint statement said.
On the eve of the London gathering, US President Barack Obama Monday urged the international community to support "a transition to the future that the Libyan people deserve."
"Even after Kadhafi does leave power, 40 years of tyranny has left Libya fractured and without strong civil institutions," Obama warned.
"The transition to a legitimate government that is responsive to the Libyan people will be a difficult task," he added, saying it was a challenge for both the international community and the Libyan people.
Obama staunchly defended his decision to pound the Kadhafi's troops in a UN-mandated bid to protect civilians.
But he cautioned the military campaign was not aimed at ousting the veteran Libyan leader by force and forcing regime change.
"To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq," Obama said. "If we tried to overthrow Kadhafi by force, our coalition would splinter. We would likely have to put US troops on the ground, or risk killing many civilians from the air.
Coalition warplanes were again in action late Monday after darkness fell, bombing regime targets on the central coast and in the west, but US officials denied the military action was intended directly to help the rebels.
Libya's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim accused the coalition forces of wanting to cut the country in two.
"The tactic of the coalition is to lead to a stalemate to cut the country in two, which means that the civil war is a continuous war, the start of a new Somalia, a very dangerous situation," he told Italian television Rai Uno late Monday.
US Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the US military's Joint Staff, said the US operations were only in support of the UN-backed resolutions to protect Libyan civilians.
"We're not in direct support of the opposition, that's not part of our mandate and we're not coordinating with the opposition," he said.