As Gadhafi's forces continue attack, coalition aims to stop flow of weapons, mercenaries
msnbc.com news services updated 2 minutes ago
After days of hard bargaining among its members, NATO agreed late Thursday to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya — but not other military operations there.
The agreement, announced in Brussels by the alliance's secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, will allow the United States to hand over command and control of part of the international operation, as it has been eager to do. But it appeared that some
"At this moment there will still be a coalition operation and a NATO operation," Fogh Rasmussen said. "But we are considering whether NATO should take on the broader responsibility in accordance with the U.N. Security
Fogh Rasmussen said the NATO operation would proceed in parallel with the bombing campaign carried out by coalition aircraft.
"At this moment there will still be a coalition operation and a NATO operation," Fogh Rasmussen said. "But we are considering whether NATO should take on that broader responsibility in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution, but that decision has not been made yet."
Earlier, Turkey said NATO members had settled four days of wrangling over the command and aims of the campaign, which would be transferred from the United States to the Western military alliance within one or two days.
Ankara had pressed for NATO to have sole control of Libya operations, but had attached conditions, saying it did not want to see it conducting offensive operations that could harm civilians or to be in charge of enforcing a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone while coalition planes are bombing Libyan forces.
President Barack
"We are still operating under that timeline, that it will be days, not weeks," spokesman Jay Carney said. Discussions are ongoing within NATO and "we feel very confident that it will happen soon," he said.
The U.N. Secretary-General said representatives of Moammar Gadhafi's government and the Libyan opposition will attend an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday.
The meeting is part of an effort to reach a cease-fire and political solution in Libya.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Fighting in Misrata Earlier, Western air strikes destroyed government tanks outside rebel-held Misrata, but other tanks inside the city were not hit, a resident said, underlining the difficulty of the U.N.-backed military mission to protect civilians.
Libya's government said it was in full control of Misrata, Libya's third city with a population of at least 300,000 people. Only a hardcore of rebels were holding out in the city, which is around 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli.
"These people are al-Qaida affiliates, they are prepared to die, they want to die, because death for them is happiness, is paradise. They know they are going to die," Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said.
But an opposition spokesman said by telephone that rebels were still fighting there, and had killed 30 snipers who had been picking off civilians from rooftops in the town. Government warships had left the port.
"There were clashes today and our fighters managed to find a way to reach the snipers on rooftops and killed 30 of them," rebel spokesman Abdulbasset Abu Mzereiq said by telephone.
Western forces, having taken out Libyan air defenses, moved deeper into Libya on Thursday in search of other strategic targets.
Gaddafi's tanks rolled back into Misrata under the cover of darkness and shelled the area near the hospital, which was also under fire from government snipers, residents and rebels said.
"The situation is very serious," a doctor in the western town said by telephone before the line was cut off.
A resident said around 6,000 workers and family members from Egypt and other African countries were stuck in the port.
Advance on Ajdabiyah Libyan rebels trying to advance on Ajdabiyah came under intermittent shelling on Thursday from forces loyal to Gaddafi holding out in the strategic eastern town.
There appeared to be efforts to negotiate a deal to end the standoff in Ajdabiyah, but details were unclear and conflicting.
"They (Gaddafi's forces) want to surrender, but they want guarantees," said Mohamed Awad, speaking from a military training camp in Benghazi, who said he heard the word from rebels returning from Ajdabiyah.
"They sent someone this evening and I think in 24 hours Ajdabiyah will be in complete rebel control."
But another rebel, Ramadan Haddad, said the rebels had made an overture that was rejected.
"Today a group of tribal chiefs went to them (Gaddafi's forces in Ajdabiyah) and said they would guarantee safe passage for them from Ajdabiyah. The captain there said: 'Either we die fighting or you (rebels) surrender.'"
Neither account could be confirmed.
Other rebel fighters said they had sent emissaries into Ajdabiyah to try to persuade Gaddafi's forces, now facing air strikes from Western warplanes, to give up.
"The day before yesterday, we sent an old man to talk to them to get them to surrender. They said they would take their weapons with them. We said no, leave them. So the talks failed," said Khalil Fakhri, a rebel fighter. "We then sent another old man in the evening, and he didn't return."
Fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns mounted on trucks were gathered on the main road leading to Ajdabiyah in greater numbers than on Wednesday.
At one rebel position, incoming missiles and other ordnance struck every few minutes.
Rebels had attached European Union and French flags to one truck, in a show of support for Western states that have been launching airstrikes on Gaddafi's forces as part of a U.N.-approved mission to protect Libyan civilians.
The flags fluttered in the strong desert wind.
In a signal of the lingering disarray in the rebel ranks, some fighters gave different accounts of their plans.
Some said they were waiting for French or other Western warplanes to strike again before advancing. Other rebels said they were waiting for their fighters in Ajdabiyah to finish off Gaddafi's. Others said they were awaiting orders from Benghazi, the rebels' de facto capital to the east.
Reports from the frontline said Gaddafi's forces were guarding the main gate to Ajdabiyah with six tanks.
"They are waving a white flag. But they are still firing on us. It is a ruse," said Ali Misrati, a rebel fighter. "The plan is to take that entrance. We have a group ahead hitting it with rockets. We will wait for them to have an effect before going in. There is another group going in by the desert road."
One man who was leaving Ajdabiyah in a car with his family of 10 said there was no water or power in the town.
"The bombing is random. Everyone has left. On the eastern gate, the western gate, the southern gate there are Gaddafi's forces. There are revolutionaries in the town and there is fighting going on right now," he said.
Strike against air base French fighter jets struck an air base deep inside Libya and downed one of Gadhafi's planes Thursday, and NATO ships patrolled the coast to block the flow of arms and mercenaries. Other coalition bombers struck artillery, arms depots and parked helicopters, officials said Thursday.
Libyan state television on Thursday showed blackened and mangled bodies that it said were victims of airstrikes in Tripoli, the capital. Rebels have accused Gadhafi's forces of taking bodies from the morgue and pretending they are civilian casualties.
The French strikes overnight hit a base about 155 miles south of the Libyan coastline, French military spokesman Thierry Burkhard told reporters in Paris on Thursday without elaborating on the target or possible damage.
A French fighter jet reported attacking and destroying a Libyan plane believed to be a military trainer aircraft, a U.S. official said, providing the information about the event Thursday on condition of anonymity because it has not been publicly announced by the French government.
The French Rafale fighter helping enforce a no-fly zone over Libya destroyed what was identified as a Libyan G-2/Galeb, which is a trainer aircraft, near the coastal city of Misrata.
In Tripoli, Libyan deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim said that the "military compound at Juffra" was among the targets hit before dawn. Juffra is one of at least two air bases deep in Libya's interior, on main routes that lead from neighboring countries in the Sahara region that have been suppliers of arms and fighters for the Gadhafi.
NATO warships began patrolling Wednesday off Libya's Mediterranean coast in an effort the blockade's commander described as "closing the main front door" to weapons and mercenaries for Gadhafi.
The U.N. Security Council authorized the embargo and no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians after Gadhafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who wanted him to leave after 42 years in power.
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