LIBYAN GOVERNMENT forces pounded rebel positions across the country’s coastline yesterday, intensifying efforts to push back a revolt against the 42-year rule of Muammar Gadafy.
Residents of Zawiya, a rebel-held city close to Tripoli which is encircled by troops loyal to Col Gadafy, said fighting there had involved the use of tanks and air strikes by government forces.
In Libya’s eastern flank, most of which is under rebel control, military aircraft carried out missile strikes on rebels massed around the oil terminal town of Ras Lanuf. The fighters had been pushed back to Ras Lanuf from the hamlet of Ben Jawwad some 40km west which they had briefly held at the weekend.
Reports of the pounding of Zawiya could not be verified independently as foreign correspondents have been prevented from entering the city and others near the capital without an official escort. One Libyan man who lives abroad said he spoke by phone yesterday to a friend in Zawiya who described desperate scenes.
“Many buildings are completely destroyed, including hospitals, electricity lines and generators,” he said.
“People cannot run away, it’s cordoned off. They cannot flee. All those who can fight are fighting, including teenagers. Children and women are being hidden.” Tanks were firing everywhere, he said.
Zawiya is the closest city to Tripoli to come under opposition control.
Some opposition leaders, based in the city of Benghazi where the uprising began some three weeks ago, said that if Col Gadafy agreed to step down within 72 hours they would not seek to bring him to justice, but others appeared to take the opposite view. Earlier, the rebels said they had rejected an offer from the Libyan leader to negotiate his surrender of power.
Meanwhile, US president Barack Obama is grappling with conflicting advice from domestic advisers and opponents, as well as international leaders, as he attempts to formulate a response to the uprising.
A “no-fly” zone is the stickiest issue. In a phone call with David Cameron, Mr Obama and the British prime minister “agreed to press forward with planning, including at Nato, on the full spectrum of possible responses, including ... a no-fly zone,” the White House said.
In Brussels there was scepticism about the offer from the Gadafy regime to facilitate an international mission in Libya to investigate human rights abuses.
The offer came as EU governments agreed in principle to toughen financial sanctions against Tripoli. Although diplomats are considering whether to pursue the Libyan offer, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said there was no change in Europe’s position that Col Gadafy should stand down at once. – (Additional reporting Lara Marlowe, Arthur Beesley, Reuters)