TRIPOLI (Reuters) – South African President Jacob Zuma flew into Tripoli Monday to try to broker a peace deal with Muammar Gaddafi, just hours after NATO's secretary-general said the Libyan leader's "reign of terror" was coming to an end.
Zuma was met by a host of dignitaries, not including Gaddafi himself, who has not been seen since May 11 when he was shown by Libyan state television meeting what it said was tribal leaders.
His walk down the red carpet at Tripoli airport was accompanied by a band and children chanting "We want Gaddafi!" in English while waving Libyan flags and pictures of the leader.
Zuma's visit is his second since the conflict began. His previous trip made little progress because Gaddafi has refused to relinquish power while rebel leaders say that is a pre-condition for any truce.
NATO warplanes have been raising the pace of their air strikes on Tripoli, with Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in the center of the city being hit repeatedly.
Britain said Sunday it was to add "bunker-busting" bombs to the arsenal its warplanes are using over Libya, a weapon it said would send a message to Gaddafi that it was time to quit.
"Our operation in Libya is achieving its objectives ... We have seriously degraded Gaddafi's ability to kill his own people," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a NATO forum in Varna, Bulgaria.
"Gaddafi's reign of terror is coming to an end. He is increasingly isolated at home and abroad. Even those closest to him are departing, defecting or deserting."
Gaddafi denies attacking civilians, saying his forces were obliged to act to contain armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants. He says the NATO intervention is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's plentiful oil reserves.
BUNKER-BUSTERS
Britain and other NATO powers are ratcheting up the military intervention to try to break a deadlock that has seen Gaddafi hold on to power despite a rebel uprising against his four-decade rule and weeks of air strikes.
U.S. Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the Joint Operations Command at Naples, declined to comment on whether NATO would put forces on the ground but suggested a small force may be needed to help the rebels once Gaddafi's rule collapses.
He told the Varna forum: "I would anticipate that there might be a need at some point to unfold a small force ... a small number of people there to help them in some way."
Britain said the Enhanced Paveway III bombs, each weighing nearly a tone and capable of penetrating the roof or wall of a reinforced building, had arrived at the Italian air base from where British warplanes fly missions over Libya.
"We are not trying to physically target individuals in Gaddafi's inner circle on whom he relies, but we are certainly sending them increasingly loud messages," British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said Sunday in a statement.
The military alliance says it is acting under a mandate from the United Nations to protect civilians from attack by security forces trying to put down the rebellion against Gaddafi.
But the more aggressive tactics risk causing divisions within the fragile alliance backing the intervention, and could also lead to NATO being dragged closer toward putting its troops on Libyan soil, something it is anxious to avoid.
Further deepening their involvement, Britain and France have said they will deploy attack helicopters over Libya to better pick out pro-Gaddafi forces. Helicopters are more vulnerable to attack from the ground than high-flying warplanes.
Sunday Al Jazeera television station broadcast video footage of what it said were foreign forces, possibly British, on the ground near the rebel-held city of Misrata.
There were a number of armed men, some wearing sunglasses and keffiyahs, or traditional Arab headscarves, who moved off when they realized they were being watched, the footage showed.
Gaddafi's foreign minister held talks in Tunisia Saturday with Lord David Trefgarne, a former British government minister, according to a former British ambassador to Libya who took part in the discussions.
The ex-ambassador refused to disclose what they talked about and Britain's government said neither it not any intermediaries were talking to officials loyal to Gaddafi.
ROCKETS FIRED
Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.
Helped by NATO air support, the rebels have been able to push back attacks by pro-Gaddafi forces but in many places they are still under bombardment and cut off from supplies.
Libyan state television reported that NATO air strikes killed 11 people in Zlitan Monday, the next town westwards on the coast road toward Tripoli from Misrata.
Libya's state news agency Jana also reported that NATO airstrikes hit the Tiji area, near the Western Mountain town of Nalut, overnight, causing "human and material losses."
Libyan officials took journalists Sunday to a school in Tripoli near the part of Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound that had been hit by NATO planes during air strikes Saturday.
There was little evidence of damage, but head teacher Hamid Miftar said the nearby blast had broken one or two windows and terrified the children as they sat for the first day of exams.
"Imagine the scene, with children this age in a school of this capacity. They all tried to run out at once," he said. "These are civilians."
As reporters toured classrooms, teachers led the schoolchildren in chants of "Allah, Muammar, Libya together!."
(Additional reporting by Stefano Ambrogi in London, Joseph Logan in Tripoli, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers and Matt Robinson in Zintan; Writing by Christian Lowe and Jan Harvey; Editing by Alison Williams)
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
No comments:
Post a Comment