Battle for Libya almost over

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Gaddafi's son: Battle for Libya almost over

Saif al-Islam says campaign against rebels will be over in 48 hours as Gaddafi forces close in on rebel stronghold.

Last Modified: 16 Mar 2011 16:16


Gaddafi's forces have retaken some of the key towns that had fallen to the rebels [EPA]

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam has said forces loyal to his father are nearing the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in the country's east and predicted an uprising against the regime would be crushed within the next two days.

Saif al-Islam told France-based TV channel Euronews on Wednesday: "The military operations are finished. In 48 hours everthing will be over. Our forces are close to Benghazi. Whatever decision is taken, it will be too late."

He was responding to questions about talks among world powers to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, a move endorsed by the 22-member Arab League last week in Cairo and backed by the United States.

The interview was given as Gaddafi's forces launched a major attack on the rebel-held city of Misurata, killing at least five people, medical sources said.

There was no immediate comment from the rebels' side following al-Islam's comments.

Tony Birtley, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Benghazi, said there was no fighting in the city on Wednesday, but added there was "a certain amount of apprehension" among the rebels.

But "there is strong will and a resolve to resist Gaddafi's forces", he said.

"This is a city of over 800,000 people. They have nailed their colours to the mast in a very clear and decisive way," said our correspondent.

'Force against Gaddafi'

A meeting of Group of Eight foreign ministers in Paris this week failed to get the agreement France was hoping for to support a no-fly zone being imposed over Libya, an issue that has also divided the UN Security Council.

But Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister who tried in vain to persuade his G8 counterparts to back a no-fly zone, wrote on his blog on Wednesday that it was not too late to take action.

"It is not enough to proclaim ... that Gaddafi must go. We have to provide the means to help those who have taken up arms against his dictatorship," he wrote.

"Only the threat of using force can stop Gaddafi. It's by bombing, with his few dozen planes and helicopters, the opposition positions that the Libyan dictator has switched the balance."

Lingering doubts among some members of the 15-member council over a no-fly zone were immediately apparent after a proposed resolution was introduced on Tuesday afternoon.

However, supporters of a no-fly zone pressed ahead on Wednesday to persuade reluctant members to back a resolution aimed at stopping Gaddafi's planes from bombing civilians.

Britain's UN ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, said council members would discuss the proposed resolution "paragraph by paragraph" because members had "a number of questions about the text".

Colombia's ambassador, Nestor Osorio, said his country "very much supported" efforts to halt violence against Libyan civilians, but still had questions about the details of a possible no-fly zone.

Other ambassadors said issues to be clarified included whether the ban would apply to all flights countrywide, and what countries would contribute planes and other assets to enforce it.

Lebanon, the council's only Arab member, introduced the no-fly provisions in a draft resolution to council members at a closed meeting on Tuesday afternoon. The Arabs are strongly backed by France and Britain, which drafted elements of a no-fly resolution last week.

'Things worsening'

"We are deeply distressed by the fact that things are worsening on the ground, that the Gaddafi forces are moving forward extremely quickly, and that this council has not yet reacted," France's UN ambassador, Gerard Araud, told reporters on Tuesday.

Pro-Gaddafi troops have been battling rebels in several cities across the Libyan coastline, using machine guns and by airpower to halt the rebels' advance on key cities in the country's west.

The rebellion, which began last month in the relatively poor city of Benghazi, followed an Egypt-style uprising against Gaddafi, in power since 1969, and has seen hundreds of civilians killed, some by air force planes.

In an article for Al Jazeera, US Senator John Kerry said concrete steps were needed for the immediate implementation of a no-fly zone.

"My fear is that he is either choosing to bleed the opposition to death, rather than invite global action with a broad massacre, or waiting for the world to prove itself unwilling to act - at which point he might well begin killing civilians in large numbers," Kerry said.

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edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/16/libya.civil.war/index.html?hpt=C2

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Qaddafi Forces Advance on Rebel Stronghold of Benghazi

Published March 16, 2011

| FoxNews.com


March 15: his image taken from Libya State TV, broadcast shows Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, as he faces a jubilant crowd, as shown on state TV.

Libya's state television has called on all armed forces to join the pro-Qaddafi forces advance towards Benghazi as Qaddafi's son says the rebel stronghold will fall to government forces within 48 hours.

"All the armed forces in the eastern area who have not joined the traitors are called upon to join the forces as they advance towards Benghazi," the message said, according to Reuters.

Saif al-Qaddafi told France-based Euronews Wednesday that any decision taken by the United Nations would come "too late," according to Sky News.

"Everything will be over in 48 hours," he told Euronews.

This comes as Muammar al-Qaddafi intensified offensives in the east and the west Wednesday with relentless shelling aimed at routing holdout rebels and retaking control of the country he has ruled with an iron fist for more than four decades.

As Qaddafi's forces gained momentum, the rebels lashed out at the West for failing to come to their aid.

"People are fed up. They are waiting impatiently for an international move," said Saadoun al-Misrati, a rebel spokesman in the city of Misrata, the last rebel-held city in the west, which came under heavy shelling Wednesday.

"What Qaddafi is doing, he is exploiting delays by international community. People are very angry that no action is being taken against Qaddafi's weaponry."

The breakdown of rebel defenses in Ajdabiya, 480 miles southeast of Tripoli, threatened to open the gateway to the long stretch of eastern Libya that has been in the control of the opposition throughout the monthlong uprising. Its fall would allow regime forces to bombard Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and the de facto capital of the opposition, by air, sea and land.

Qaddafi's forces continued shelling the city of 140,000 people overnight and throughout the morning with relentless artillery fire and little resistance from the rebels.

An activist hiding out in the city said the rebels were lightly armed but still managed to ambush a group of regime troops marching into the city on foot late Tuesday, but the victory was short lived. Artillery shelling was ongoing, he said.

"The rebels set a trap and managed to take over four tanks, but now I see none of them," Abdel-Bari Zwei said when reached by telephone. "Ajdabiya is witnessing unprecedented destruction. This is the end of the city."

Residents in Ajdabiya fled either to tents set up outside the city or 140 miles northeast to Benghazi.

"The shelling hasn't stopped since last night. The residential areas are under attack," Zwei said, adding that the hospital had been overwhelmed and many of the injured had to be taken to Benghazi.

The city was besieged from the west, where Qaddafi's brigades were deployed from his stronghold of Sirte, and from the north with a warship in the Mediterranean Sea.

"The city is sealed off from the south, from the west and the northern Zwitina port by a warship," he said.

Libyan state television aired calls for the opposition to stop fighting, apparently hoping to sway populations in the east away from support of the rebels.

Ajdabiya has been a key supply point for the rebellion, with ammunition and weapons depots. Until now, the Qaddafi forces' offensive toward the east has battled over two oil ports on the Mediterranean Sea, and Ajdabiya is the first heavily populated city in the area they have tried to retake.

It was a major setback to the rebels, who less than two weeks ago were poised to march on Tripoli, the capital, and had appeared capable of sweeping Qaddafi out of power, inspired by successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. But the regime's better armed and organized military has reversed the tide as efforts led by France and Britain to create a no-fly zone to protect the rebels foundered.

Oil prices rose to above $98 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as fears that clashes in Libya and the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain could further disrupt crude supplies outweighed concern Japan's disaster will crimp demand.

Qaddafi warned rebels: "There are only two possibilities: Surrender or run away."

He said he was not like the Tunisian or Egyptian leaders who fell after anti-government protests. "I'm very different from them," he said in an interview published Tuesday in the Italian newspaper Il Giornale. "People are on my side and give me strength."

In a separate appearance, Qaddafi addressed supporters in Tripoli late Tuesday, calling the rebels "rats" and blasting Western nations. "They want Libyan oil," he said.

During his appearance, a crowd watching on a TV projection on a wall in Benghazi shouted curses and threw shoes at the image, in video broadcast live by Al-Jazeera satellite TV.

Qaddafi's forces also launched an attack on Misrata -- which for days has been under a punishing blockade, its population running out of supplies. The barrage came a day after the government recaptured the last rebel-held city west of Tripoli, solidifying his control over the coastline from the capital to the Tunisian border.

"There is coordinated shelling by Qaddafi's brigades firing artillery and machine guns from three different city entrances," rebel spokesman Saadoun al-Misrati said, speaking by satellite phone.

He said the shelling began at 7 a.m. and regular telephone lines had been cut.

Europe and the United States, meanwhile, were tossing back and forth the question of whether to impose a no-fly zone that the opposition has pleaded for.

On Tuesday, top diplomats from some of the world's biggest powers deferred to the U.N. Security Council to take action against Libya, as France and Britain failed to win support for a no-fly zone in the face of German opposition and U.S. reluctance. France said the Group of Eight agreed that a new U.N. resolution should be adopted by week's end with measures to help Libyan rebels.

A U.N. resolution introduced Tuesday includes no-fly provisions. It also calls for increased enforcement of an arms embargo and freezing more Libyan assets, according to U.N. diplomats said who spoke on condition of anonymity because the text has not been released. One diplomat said the Security Council will be looking to see whether members of the Arab League, which is pressing for the no-fly zone, are ready to seriously participate in the establishment and operation of a zone.

The U.S. added sanctions Tuesday, banning business with Libya's foreign minister and 16 companies it owns or controls.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/16/141742.html