TRIPOLI – Nato warplanes have pounded Tripoli for a second day, raising military pressure on Col Muammar Gadafy while diplomatic efforts to force his departure intensified.
Six loud explosions shook Tripoli late yesterday within 10 minutes, following powerful strikes 24 hours earlier – including one on Col Gadafy’s compound – that Libyan officials said killed 19 and state television blamed on “colonialist crusaders”.
A Nato official said the alliance hit a vehicle storage bunker, a missile storage and maintenance site and a command-and-control site on the outskirts of Tripoli. Government targets around the rebel outpost of Misurata had also been hit.
“We were quite active in the past 24 hours and will continue to be so,” the official said. “Striking fighting units and people trying to give the orders is having the desired effect.”
Libyan news agency Jana said Nato hit a telecommunications station in Zlitan overnight, causing “material and human casualties losses” west of Misurata.
Meanwhile, British foreign secretary William Hague dismissed fears that western states were being drawn into an Iraq-style conflict. “It’s very different from Iraq because of course in the case of Iraq there were very large numbers of ground forces deployed from western nations,” Mr Hague told BBC radio.
France, Britain and the United States are leading the air strikes, which began on March 19th after the UN Security Council authorised “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from Gadafy forces as they sought to crush an uprising against his 41-year rule.
The three countries say the campaign will continue until Col Gadafy leaves power. French foreign minister Alain Juppé said the Nato bombing campaign should achieve its objectives within months. “There are more and more centres of resistance , especially in the west,” Mr Juppé said.
France said this week it would deploy attack helicopters to ensure more precise attacks against Gadafy loyalists embedded among the civilian population of Libyan cities. Britain said it was considering doing the same.
Military analysts said these plans and the intensified bombing of Tripoli reflected western worries that the civil war was dragging on indecisively. But they said the new moves might not be enough to tip the balance quickly.
South African president Jacob Zuma will visit Tripoli next week for talks with the Libyan leader and is optimistic that the meeting could help find a lasting solution.
Mr Zuma’s spokesman, Zizi Kodwa, said the visit, on behalf of the African Union (AU), was aimed at seeking an end to hostilities in line with a road map drawn up by the regional body in March.
The South African president headed an AU mission to Tripoli in April but the bid to halt the civil war collapsed when rebels said shelling was continuing despite a ceasefire agreement. The AU does not have a good track record in brokering peace deals, having failed to end conflicts in Somalia, Madagascar and Ivory Coast.
“The president is optimistic . . . Mondays meeting will help in some way to find a lasting solution to the Libyan problem,” Mr Kodwa said. – (Reuters)