Libyan Rebel commander Abdel Fattah Younes killed

Libya's rebel military commander was shot dead in an incident that remained shrouded in mystery, dealing a blow to Western-backed forces labouring in a campaign to topple Muammar Gaddafi.

Rebels said Abdel Fattah Younes, long in the veteran Libyan leader’s inner circle before defecting in February, was shot by assailants on Thursday after he had been summoned from the battlefield for unspecified talks. Some analysts thought Gaddafi agents may have killed him, others that his own side had done so, revealing deep divisions between Gaddafi defectors and those who never worked with him. Neither side in the conflict clarified the matter.

The killing coincided with a new rebel offensive in the west and further international recognition for rebels, which they hope will help unfreeze billions of dollars in Libyan funds. The rebels did not say who killed Younes or where, and said on Thursday they did not yet have his body.

But on Friday, weeping relatives and supporters brought his coffin into the main square of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to mourn him, and vowed allegiance to remaining rebel leaders. “We got the body yesterday here (in Benghazi), he had been shot with bullets and burned,” Younes’s nephew, Abdul Hakim, said, crying as he followed the coffin through the square. “He had called us at 10 o’clock (on Thursday morning) to say he was on his way here.”

Secret talks Officials would not give details of why Younes was recalled on Thursday to Benghazi from the front line near the oil port of Brega for questioning. Rumours had circulated in Benghazi that he had held secret talks with the Gaddafi government.

“If the rumours that General Younes was feeding information to Gaddafi were there then it would make sense that some rogue elements might attempt to assassinate him,” said Alan Fraser, an analyst with London-based risk consultancy AKE. Rebel defence minister Omar Hariri told Reuters his death was still being investigated and his loss would be great.

Afghanistan: Deadly attack in Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan

Insurgents have carried out a gun and bomb attack in the south Afghan town of Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan province, leaving at least 22 dead, officials say.

They said the violence included three suicide bombings followed by fighting in a market, adding that all eight attackers had now been killed.

The dead include Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a local BBC reporter.

The Taliban say they carried out the attack, which comes amid renewed violence in Afghanistan.
Nato says it is providing air support to Afghan forces in Tarin Kowt.

TV station stormed
fghan intelligence officials said at least one bomb exploded near the governor's office and one near the offices of a security firm owned by a local militia commander. It is not clear where the third bomb was detonated.
Most of the fighting took place near these offices, which are close to the main market and a building which houses a local radio and TV station.

Bilal Sarwary says the market was attacked from four sides, but the siege was broken by elite forces.

Residents said heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles were used by both sides.
Health officials said 22 people had been killed including three women and 40 injured, most of them civilians.
Among the dead is Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a reporter for the Pashto radio service as well as the Pajhwok news agency.

He was one of several people killed when the TV and radio station was attacked.

BBC Global News director Peter Horrocks said: "The BBC and the whole world are grateful to journalists like Ahmed Omed who courageously put their lives on the line to report from dangerous places."
Two soldiers were among the dead but no senior government officials have been harmed, officials said.
 
'Doomsday'

Eyewitness Mohammad Dadu, a butcher at the market, told: ''I didn't have time to close my shop. I saw two dead bodies and four injured people with blood on their clothes.

"It feels like doomsday. Everyday people came to the market to shop. But today people are here collecting the dead and injured bodies of their relatives. There is blood, smoke from explosives and everyone has fled the area."

Afghan militants have stepped up their attacks as Nato troops begin the handover of security to local forces in parts of the country.

On Wednesday the mayor of the volatile city of Kandahar was killed in a suicide attack.

Two weeks ago, President Hamid Karzai's influential half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in the same city.

Rebel Chief Says Gaddafi, Family Can Stay in Libya

Libyan opposition leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said Sunday that Col. Moammar Gadhafi and his family could remain in Libya as part of a political solution to the five-month-old conflict, provided they give up power and rebel leaders can determine where in Libya and under what conditions they remain.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal during an unannounced visit to Libya's rebel- controlled western mountains, Mr. Jalil confirmed reports from other rebel officials in recent days that Qatar has stepped up the flow of military aid to rebels in recent days.

Mr. Jalil's offer to let Col. Gadhafi and his family remain in Libya appears to be a significant reversal for the Libyan opposition leader, who is chairman of the rebels' Transitional National Council, based in Benghazi. "Gadhafi can stay in Libya but it will have conditions," Mr. Jalil said. "We will decide where he stays and who watches him.

The same conditions will apply to his family." Mr. Jalil spoke over a lunch of lamb, garbonzo beans and Pepsi, served in cans adorned with pink paper umbrellas, at a private home in the western mountain city of Zintan, where rebel military leaders have established their regional headquarters.

In agreeing that Mr. Gadhafi and his family could remain in Libya, Mr. Jalil appeared to be softening his position, and backing up comments made by U.S., Italian and French officials in recent days to the same effect. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday that Col. Gadhafi could remain in Libya as long as he gives up power completely.

The U.S. and Italy have said recently that Col. Gadhafi must be removed from power, but have said his fate after that is up to the Libyan people, leaving open the possibility that he remain in Libya. Mr. Jalil's willingness to accept anything short of exile and criminal prosecution for Mr. Gadhafi is likely to prove unpopular among the rebel rank and file.

Mr. Jalil made similar comments to Reuters earlier this month, but had to issue a quick denial after protests erupted in the streets of Benghazi. But Mr. Jalil appears to have carefully calibrated his comments on Sunday by setting conditions for Col. Gadhafi's remaining in Libya that could be broadly interpreted.

Mr. Jalil didn't elaborate on where or under what conditions rebels would demand Col. Gadhafi live if he remained, but presumably it could mean anything from comfortable house arrest among his tribesmen, to a dark cell in solitary confinement. The diplomatic wording would seem to allow Mr. Jalil to appear willing to compromise to appease Western leaders eager to see an end to the conflict, while not alienating his rebel base who want to see Col. Gadhafi held accountable for his actions.

The softening of Mr. Jalil's position toward Col. Gadhafi and his family comes as rebels say they are stepping up military preparations for a resumed push on Col. Gadhafi's forces along multiple fronts. A critical piece of those preparations has been an uptick in military aide from the Persian Gulf state of Qatar in recent days, according to Mr. Jalil and other rebel officials in Benghazi.

Mr. Jalil said Qatar had sent military trainers to the western mountains to train rebel fighters and had built and equipped a rebel operational command center with the latest equipment. Indeed, Qatari military personnel were accompanying Mr. Jalil during his visit to the western mountains. One Qatari military trainer said his team of trainers arrived in the western mountains 20 days ago to train rebels to use certain light weapons and teach them small- unit tactics.

Sunday's visit was Mr. Jalil's first visit to the region since he was tapped as the rebel leader shortly after the uprising began on Feb. 17. Mr. Jalil and his entourage flew into the western mountains after a short visit in Tunisia, where many Libyan civilians have sought refuge from the fighting and where many rebel fighters have gone for treatment.

His plane landed at the rebels' makeshift airstrip on a straight stretch of desert highway outside of Zintan. Qatar has been one of the rebels' staunchest allies since the early days of the uprising and has long provided them with a steady flow of humanitarian and military aid. Qatar has been sending rebels anti- tank weapons, small arms, ammunitions, and bullet proof vests, among other such items for months, according to rebel officials who help manage and distribute the shipments in Benghazi.

But just in the past four days Qatar has stepped up both the quantity and type of military aid it is shipping to the rebels, these officials said. The recent shipments have for the first time included new four-wheel-drive vehicles and armored mine clearers to help the rebels clear massive mine fields laid by Col. Gadhafi's forces outside the oil town of Brega, according to the officials.

Mr. Jalil said rebels would continue their offensive on all fronts during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins early next month. He said rebels in the western mountains were the closest to Tripoli and rebels' best chance of piercing Col. Gadhafi's defenses and reaching the capital. "The war will end in one of three ways," Mr. Jalil said. "Gadhafi will surrender, he will flee Libya, or he will be killed or captured by one of his bodyguards or by rebel forces."

Germany to lend €100m to Libyan rebels

International Medical Corps medics treat injured rebel fighters at a field hospital near Misrata's frontline. The rebel city is struggling to pay for essentials.

Germany has announced that it will lend €100m to the Libyan opposition to ease a growing humanitarian crisis in rebel-controlled parts of the country.

The £88m loan to the national transitional council (NTC) was secured against frozen Libyan government funds. The money comes as the rebels struggle to pay for essentials, a fact that was exacerbated on Sunday when government missiles struck the oil tanks that fuel the besieged city of Misrata's power generators.

"We have decided to provide the NTC with urgently needed funding for civil and humanitarian measures," said the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, in a statement. "People are suffering more and more from this, particularly in eastern Libya."

Five months into the war, cash is running low and the rebels have tried and failed to get access to billions of dollars held in Libyan government accounts.

The situation is most acute in Misrata, Libya's third largest city, whose only route to the outside world is by sea. The normally affluent city was well stocked with supplies when war broke out, with petrol tanks and grain silos full. But supplies are running low, along with the cash to pay for them.

Prices for goods ranging from clothes to fruit have skyrocketed in recent weeks. "You cannot pay for everything you need in Misrata now, you cannot pay for juice, the children must have fruit and we cannot pay for it," said Bashir Al Zawawi, a lecturer in business administration at Misrata University.

On Sunday, one of the four giant tanks holding the city's oil supplies was hit by three grad rockets fired from government lines, leaving a huge pall of smoke over the city.

The most acute shortages are felt in Misrata's battered hospitals. "We have a shortage of everything," Dr Khalid Abufalgha, head of the city's health council, told the Guardian. "We are receiving humanitarian aid but it is never enough."

The rebels say Qatar, one of their key backers, has offered an "air bridge" to fly in food and medical supplies fly out wounded, but only when it is safe to land at the airport. Engineers have cleared the runway of debris and cannibalised wrecked machinery to provide fuel and power for landing planes, but the government frontlines are too near to make landings safe.

"We need this airport," said the airport's director, Abdul Hamid Garwash. "From our side we're ready, but permission is needed from Nato."

Earlier this month the NTC spokesman, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, complained that promises of payments from western donors in May remained unfulfilled. Western officials counter that payments are being held up because the NTC is unable to present a fully transparent accountancy system to allow funds to be checked, and to guarantee that money earmarked for aid is not used for weapons.

Nato remains outwardly confident that however bad things are for the rebels, they were worse for government forces, saying that weeks of bombing had inflicted significant damage on Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli, where bombs reportedly hit early on Sunday morning.

"Gaddafi has for decades hidden from the Libyan people behind these walls," said Major General Nick Pope, spokesman for Britain's chief of the defence staff.

The Gaddafi government insists it remains open to a negotiated solution to the war, with spokesman Moussa Ibrahim saying Libyan officials had a "productive dialogue" with US officials last week.

Informal peace proposals will be canvassed this week by special UN envoy to Libya, Abdul Elah al-Khatib, a Jordanian senator. But the sticking point in any negotiations is likely to be the insistence of the US, UK, France and Russia that Gaddafi steps down as a precondition to talks, which Ibrahim said would be rejected.

Rebels Want Qaddafi to Face ICC

On July 22, the deputy head of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), Ali Essawi said that he wanted to see Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi stand trial at the International Criminal Court in Hague.

Deputy head of Libyan NTC Ali Essawi said, "We would like to have Gaddafi taken to the ICC, we would like justice to play its role and we would like to see the crimes paid also. There is no contradictory between the two. No-one can forgive him, even if he left the country. His crimes have touched all over the world, not only the Libyans, even other people and other countries and his terrorist actions, and we cannot forgive him on behalf of the others also."

Ali Essawi added, "Negotiations will be only on the departure of Gaddafi. We will not negotiate on his staying in Libya or ruling the Libyans, this is in principle. His statement belongs to him, as far as we know that Gaddafi will not step down. He is insisting on the killing of the Libyans, he is insisting on the revenge from the Libyans and he will not leave the country or the power"

Last month, the Hague-based ICC issued warrants for the arrest of Gaddafi, his son Saif Al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah Al-Senussi on charges that they ordered the killing of protestors.
Meanwhile, on July 21, Gaddafi addressed thousands of supporters in an audio message saying that he would never negotiate with the rebels. NTC officials rejected his statement.

Gaddafi Increases Chances He Could Stay

The U.S., the U.K., Italy and France now say they’re willing to accept an outcome in Libya that would allow Muammar Gaddafi avoid exile or a trial on war crimes charges.

After conducting four months of daily bombings, NATO-led allies are willing to let Gaddafi stay in Libya on the condition that he gives up power.

“If the Libya people believe an internal solution is acceptable, then Italy agrees,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said yesterday in Guangzhou, China, according to ANSA news agency. A spokesman confirmed his comments.

“One of the scenarios effectively envisaged is that he stays in Libya on one condition, which I repeat: that he very clearly steps aside from Libyan political life,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said July 20 in a television interview with French news channel LCI.

As the military campaign enters its fifth month, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies want to wrap up a mission that Juppe promised at its March 19 outset “will be counted in days and in weeks, not in months.” Politically, they have pressing concerns at home: For Europeans, it’s saving the euro and for Americans, it’s defending an AAA credit rating by cutting federal spending.

“It shows some desperation, because the entire military operation didn’t deliver what the U.K., France and also the U.S. had hoped for,” Jan Techau, director of Carnegie Europe in Brussels, the European center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a telephone interview. “You get pragmatic and you change the targets.”

‘Regime Change 2.0’

Qaddafi, who seized power of the oil-rich North African nation in a military coup in 1969, still controls the capital, Tripoli, and has threatened to “blow up” the city if the rebels succeed in seizing it.

Techau calls the new strategy “Regime Change 2.0,” permitting exile within Libya. That is a softer take on the original plan, which had been to either let Qaddafi escape to a safe haven or have him stand trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

For the first time, allies and rebels may be prepared to grant Qaddafi’s wish to live out his retirement on his home soil, on the condition he lay down his arms and give up power.

That “is a possibility that can be worked to try and make him leave” power, Mahmoud Jibril, who heads the Transitional National Council, the rebel governing group, told reporters in Madrid yesterday.

 

Leaving Power

“If Qaddafi does not leave power, there is no room for an exchange of ideas,” he said. “We do not intend to negotiate on whether Qaddafi leaves power but on how he leaves power.”

As the fighting continues, Qaddafi’s troops have set explosive charges at petroleum installation in the oil port of Brega as well as at unspecified oilfields, Jibril said, according to the Associated Press.

The June 27 indictment of Qaddafi on charges of crimes against humanity limited his exile options to a handful of countries that did not ratify the Rome treaty that set up the court in 2002.

Still, Qaddafi saw a door open the day after the U.S. and 31 other nations gave the Transitional National Council official recognition as the governing authority in Libya.

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz, Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman and National Security Council staff member Derek Chollet held a secret meeting July 16 with representatives of Qaddafi’s inner circle.

U.S.-Libyan Meeting

The face-to-face talks were a sign of U.S. willingness to negotiate with the regime, according to a spokesman for Qaddafi’s government, Moussa Ibrahim. U.S. State Department officials insist that the meeting was not a negotiation and was intended only to deliver the message in person that Qaddafi must step down.

Either way, U.S. officials don’t exclude the possibility of Qaddafi staying in Libya as long as he steps aside.

“He needs to be removed from power or remove himself from power,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters July 20. “It is up to the Libyan people to decide what his future is beyond that, I mean, so it’s not for us to say.”

Robert Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, said that the longer the military campaign drags on, the harder it becomes to keep the coalition together. Time has played in Qaddafi’s favor, as it “seems to have strengthened his negotiating position,” Danin said in a telephone interview.

 

‘Palpable Option’

By flitting between conciliatory overtures and threats, Qaddafi has kept his opponents guessing what his next move will be or whether the end to the conflict will come only with his capture or death.

“Qaddafi’s message is, ‘Like hell am I leaving Tripoli; give me something I can work with or come get me,’” said Alessandro Politi, a former adviser to the Italian Defense Ministry. “The allies realize they can’t keep demanding he cede power if they don’t give him a palpable option of where to go.”

The “best” outcome would be for Qaddafi to leave Libya and stand trial in The Hague, Gavin Cook, a spokesman for the U.K. Foreign Office, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “But what happens to Qaddafi is ultimately up to the Libyan people, and they should determine his future.”

Letting Qaddafi stay does pose risks and could destabilize a country that was stitched together in 1929, when Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were united as one colonial province under the Italians. Qaddafi has held the country together in his four decades in power.

“Is he going to be safe five, 10 years down the line is what he will be asking himself,” Politi said. “Will the authorities catch up with him or someone try and kill him?”

Lack of Coordination Hampers Libya's Rebels

Ahmad Harari, a Libyan rebel fighting to overthrow Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, recounted how he was almost killed last week. He was part of a small group of fighters assigned to defend a front- line position in Qawalish, a village in Libya's arid western highlands.

Then Colonel Qaddafi's military attacked, rushing forward in pickup trucks. Mr. Harari said he had only 18 cartridges for his rifle, roughly the same amount of ammunition carried by everyone in his group. Within minutes he ran out. "Every man lost all of his bullets and tried to escape," he said. A friend was captured, killed and mutilated, he said, but the others managed to get away.

While the Libyan rebels have carved out an enclave in the west, the dearth of ammunition in Mr. Harari's group points to one of the continuing drains on their military strength - an absence of coordination, even on matters as basic as making sure that ample ammunition is provided to the front-line fighters. As Libya's uprising-turned-desert- war enters its sixth month, the rebels in the mountains have assembled into small bands of local fighters.

These groups - often named for the towns the fighters come from - have demonstrated both an eagerness to fight and a willingness to work with almost anyone who can help them reach their goal of ousting the Qaddafi family from power. But coordination between them, as well as logistical help from their higher commands and foreign supporters, has not developed in important ways.

In eastern Libya, the rebel authorities talk of making a national army; here in the west, the state of official disorganization makes the prospects for such a force unlikely in the near term. Interviews with dozens of rebels present a portrait of a guerrilla force that acts less like a coherent structure than a network of pickup fighting clubs. Groups share common goals but are undermined by local rivalries. Orders from the senior regional command are followed arbitrarily, including, in Qawalish, orders not to loot.

Information flows only partly up and down the chain of command. Many fighters say they suspect others of hoarding weapons and ammunition, and withholding essential supplies. And when they fight, the different groups can move haphazardly about the battlefield, each according to its own will, while the senior commanders - many of them former officers in Colonel Qaddafi's army - remain far back, out of harm and sight. Some former pro-Qaddafi officers have declined to participate in the fighting, the rank-and-file rebels say, making the chief value of these defectors their political significance, not how they can influence the direction of a bitter, village-by- village ground war.

One fighter from Gharyan, one of the cities held by Colonel Qaddafi's forces that is now in the rebels' sights, described the Gharyani fighters' request to a defector, an air force colonel, to lead them to reclaim their homes. "We asked him to be our commander," said the fighter, Ziad, who requested that his last name be withheld to protect his family. "He said, 'No, the only thing I know is office jobs.' And we don't have a commander yet."

The rebels in the mountains cut across many boundaries, and often the composition of their units breaks through distinctions in class, ethnicity and tribe. Side by side in fighting groups are university students and their professors, laborers and accountants, lawyers and petroleum engineers. In one group, an air traffic controller worked beside a lecturer from Gharyan University's faculty of law.

Few of these men claim to have had any military experience before taking up arms this year. Considering their circumstances and backgrounds, their tactical success has been remarkable. The impoverished population began the war with few arms with which to fight a conventional force, yet the rebels, aided by NATO air power, have chased Colonel Qaddafi's soldiers from much of Libya's highlands.

Many villages on the high plateau today are independent of Colonel Qaddafi's rule. Some, like Jadu, are also safe enough that families who had fled the fighting have returned. But there is also a strong sense among these men that what is behind them, from a military perspective, was not as challenging as what lies ahead, and that their low level of organization may add to the difficulties. Politically and socially, many of the villages captured thus far were strongly anti-Qaddafi. But many of the towns and cities on the roads to Tripoli, the capital, have split loyalties.

A few tilt in favor of the Qaddafi clan. Intertribal grievances have become a visible factor, too - which could make the fighting fiercer and more widespread. And tactically, the approaches to some of the cities lie across the open desert, where the rebels could find themselves more vulnerable to the Qaddafi garrisons' artillery and mortar fire. Moreover, as Colonel Qaddafi's forces have suffered attrition, they have seemed to rely more on land mines to defend their positions, a menace that could drive up rebel losses when they move forward.

With the holy month of Ramadan set to begin in early August, and daytime desert temperatures often climbing above 100 degrees, the pace of fighting has slowed. The duties of many groups are often as simple as rotating through daylong shifts watching over the front. But these shifts offer insights into the weakness of the rebel command.

Rebels from Yafran standing duty at the front line on Monday said that their fighting group had fewer rifles than men, and when they were assigned to front-line duties they were issued a rifle for one day that they had to return to their base the next. They are also issued little ammunition. And tellingly, in more than two weeks of interviews with fighters, not one said he had seen the rifles and machine guns France has said it supplied to the rebels in the spring.

Each man said his rifle had been scavenged from the battlefield. Many wondered who among their leaders had kept or withheld the guns. The shortages are a drag on the rebels' strength. Before the recent battle for Kikla, the rebels said they had more than 200 fighters, but only 89 military rifles and limited ammunition. "We have belief," said Ibrahim Suraya, the leader of the local civilian council. "This is our gun." The mountains are awash with bravado, and many fighters echo such statements. God is with us, they say. Victory or death, others add.

Still, others wonder why there is enough ammunition to fire in long bursts at funerals in the cities, but not enough for battle. Jamal Akhmad, a 52-year-old petroleum engineer waiting with younger men for the next battle, was looking for more than slogans. He spoke calmly and without bitterness as he shared a front-line soldier's view. His complaint was as old as revolution and war. "People get comfortable, sitting in their chairs, and they forget about the people," he said. "Even this is true of our own committee."

Libyan officials sought guarantees Gaddafi would not be pursued for war crimes

Libyan representatives sought guarantees Col Muammar Gaddafi would not be pursued for war crimes if he stepped down during talks with US officials.

Diplomats involved in contacts with Libyan officials said that Tripoli sought talks with Washington as part of a series of informal negotiations on Col Gaddafi's future. But while French mediators last week insisted that Col Gaddafi must leave Libya, a move that would make him vulnerable to arrest and war crimes charges, American diplomats only insisted that the dictator give up power.

European diplomats said on Tuesday that America, which is not a member of the World Court, could formally put its weight behind a deal to scrap UN sanctions that authorised war crime charges. "There is open question here of an American role but the Americans have also been very clear that they delivered a message and not launch negotiations," a European diplomat said.

Libyan emissaries have held a series of meetings with Turkish, French and South African officials in previous weeks. Unnamed regime officials met senior American diplomats in Tunis on Saturday. "There have been a number of indications that talks behind the scenes are going on and the feeling is that these centre on Gaddafi continuing to live in Libya or being allowed a dignified exile, probably somewhere in Africa," said Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador who has met Gaddafi loyalists in recent weeks.

A US official was unequivocal in saying that the only message given to Col Gaddafi in the meeting was that he should stand down. "This was not a negotiation. It was the delivery of a message," the official said. The French defence minister yesterday said pressure on Col Gaddafi to seek a negotiated exit had risen but warned the Libyan leader could still hold out.

"The countdown has begun," said Gerard Longuet, the defence minister who last week called for immediate talks with Col Gaddafi. "I am cautious because Gaddafi is not rational and he could opt for a bunker strategy, taking the whole civilian population of Tripoli hostage." "As panic takes over in the ranks around Gaddafi, we are seeing more and more emissaries of all types who are touring world capitals," he said.

"When one of those comes within our range our message is always the same: Gaddafi must go." Libyan rebels launched a full- scale attack on the oil town of Brega on Thursday, taking significant casualties as they fought through the streets on Saturday and Sunday. They are also having to deal with extensive minefields and traps full of chemicals, they have said. The Transitional National Council on Monday claimed that only a small pocket of 150-200 loyalist fighters were holding out.

The French foreign ministry backed the rebels' statement. "The Libyan resistance forces are in the process of controlling the totality of the city," the spokesman, Bernard Valero, said. "It represents progress on the ground by the action of Libyan rebel forces. It would seem to confirm the retreat and isolation of Gaddafi and his forces." The rebels have made no significant gains on the eastern front since March, and the loss of Brega would be a major blow for Col Gaddafi.

Gadhafi rejects international recognition of rebels

40 countries and international organizations recognize Rebel Council as legitimate representative of Libyan people; Libyan leader Gadhafi calls on nation to 'tramp this silly recognition under your feet' on state television.

Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi has rejected the recognition by 40 countries and international organizations of the rebel Transitional National Council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people.

"Tramp this silly recognition under your feet," Gaddafi told his supporters in an audio message broadcast Friday night on state-run Libyan TV.

"Their decisions ... their recognition ... they are all now under your feet. Stomp on them," he added.

The Libya Contact Group, which met on Friday in Istanbul announced that it recognized the Libyan rebels' council as the representative of the people and a "government authority."

The meeting was the fourth of the group since the armed conflict began in Libya five months ago. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced for the first time Washington officially recognized the TNC.

The diplomats discussed ways to end the conflict between troops loyal to Gadhafi and the rebels. The participants in the meeting reiterated calls on Gadhafi to step down.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that various ways to increase pressure on Gadhafi were also discussed.

He added that the rebels were in need of humanitarian and financial aid ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, urging members of the group to release part of the Libyan assets they had frozen so the rebels could be given a $200 million credit.

On Thursday, Gadhafi vowed in an audio message to fight back, saying: "I too will redeem you with my own life ... I will fight until the end.”

Libyan rebels win recognition and promise of financial support

The Libyan 'contact group' foreign ministers pose for a photo during a meeting in Istanbul.

Libyan rebels fighting to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi have won broad political recognition as the country's "legitimate authority" as well as the promise of huge financial support and a British commitment to intensify Nato bombing.

Recognition of the Benghazi-based national transitional council (NTC) at an Istanbul meeting of the international "contact group" on Friday was one of a number of political and economic measures designed to bolster the opposition and increase pressure on the Libyan leader.

Britain, along with France – the leading partner in Nato air operations – announced it was deploying four more Tornado fighter aircraft, on top of 30 RAF planes already operating. "Military pressure on the regime will continue to intensify," said the foreign secretary, William Hague.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, insisted that the regime's violence must end. "Increasingly the people of Libya are looking past Gaddafi," she said. "They know, as we all know, that it is no longer a question of whether Gaddafi will leave power, but when."

The emphasis, however, was on a political solution. The UN envoy to Libya, Abdul-Elah al-Khatib, was authorised to present terms for Gaddafi to leave power as part of a Turkish-drafted package that includes talks on a political transition.

"The contact group's decision to deal with the national transitional council as the legitimate governing authority in Libya reflects the NTC's increasing legitimacy, competence and success in reaching out to all Libyans," said Hague. "In contrast, Gaddafi has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of the Libyan people and the international community."

Few contact group member countries now maintain diplomatic relations with the Gaddafi regime and most have shut or mothballed their embassies in Tripoli. Britain has said for some time that it regards the NTC as the "legitimate representative of the Libyan people" but it recognises states, not governments.

For the US, France and others, the decision is expected to have legal implications that will allow billions of dollars in Libyan state assets frozen by UN sanctions to be made available to the NTC.

"We expect this step on recognition will enable the NTC to access additional sources of funding," said Clinton. Officials say there is over $30bn (£26bn) in the US alone.

"It is political support," said Guma El-Gamaty, London spokesman for the NTC. "It means no legitimacy for Gaddafi. It may also have a financial impact that will help us as well."

The UAE, one of two Arab states taking part in the Nato operations, announced that it would open a diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, chairing the meeting, urged delegates to find "innovative ways" to support the opposition, stressing an "urgent need for cash" before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which starts on 1 August. Turkey has already started a $200m credit line. Italy announced a similar move.

It remains unclear whether Gaddafi and his sons will be required to leave the country under any political deal. "Gaddafi must leave power according to a defined framework to be publicly announced," the contact group said. The Libyan leader, wanted for crimes against humanity by the international criminal court, has repeatedly insisted he will not stand down.

Late on Thursday Gaddafi urged supporters to march on Benghazi and Misrata to liberate the cities of traitors.

"We are here and we will stay here on this ground," he pledged in a defiant message relayed by loudspeaker to supporters in al-Ajaylat, 50 miles west of Tripoli. "I will stay with my people until the last drop of my blood is spilled. I too will redeem you with my own life … I will fight until the end."

Antiaircraft Missiles On the Loose in Libya

Five months after the armed uprising erupted in Libya, a new round of portable antiaircraft missiles - weapons that governments fear could be obtained by terrorists and then fired at civilian jetliners - have been slipping from storage bunkers captured by rebels.

In February, in the early stages of the uprising, large numbers of the missiles slipped from the hands of Col. Muammar el- Qaddafi's government as the rebels established control over eastern Libya and the ammunition depots there. The leakage resumed recently with rebel gains here in the western mountains, which opened up new ammunition stores.

The new leakage of the missiles, which are of the same type that officials in other African nations have said have already been trafficked over Libya's borders, underscores the organizational weakness of the forces opposed to Colonel Qaddafi; it also raises concerns that if more Qaddafi depots fall to the rebels, then further stocks of the weapons could become accessible to black markets.

Signs of the diversion are readily visible here, at an ammunition depot captured late last month from the Qaddafi forces after repeated NATO bombings. On a recent day, 43 emptied wooden crates - long, thin and painted in dark green - had been left behind on the sand inside the entrance. The boxes had not been there during a visit to the same spot a few days before, and the weapons were gone.

The stenciled markings showed each crate had contained a pair of lightweight missiles called SA-7s - early Soviet versions of the same class of weapon as the better known American-made Stingers, which were used by Afghan fighters against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was not clear who had taken them. The rebel guards variously blamed Qaddafi forces and misinformed opposition fighters.

New Leaks of Antiaircraft Missiles From Rebel-Held Bunkers in Libya During more than four decades in power, Colonel Qaddafi's often bellicose government is thought to have acquired as many as 20,000 of these missiles, known as Manpads, for Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems, in arms deals with the former Eastern bloc.

Many are assumed to remain in the Qaddafi military's custody, American officials say, and others have been fired in the conflict, meaning that the number loose is most likely much smaller than the original stock. There has been no publicly available evidence that Libya's rebels are directly involved in missile trafficking. Rebel leaders say that if their fighters have taken any missiles, they meant to use them in battle, and that they say they suspect soldiers in the Qaddafi military of selling and smuggling these kinds of arms.

But American officials and Western security analysts say there are grave worries that once the weapons inherited by rebels have been made accessible and reach unsupervised hands, opportunistic smugglers can match them to potential buyers. In a telephone interview, Andrew J. Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political- military affairs, described the unsecured missiles in Libya as "one of the things that keep me up at night."

Two other American officials, speaking anonymously so as not to upset diplomatic relations with the rebels, said that after the initial leakage of the SA-7s the American government repeatedly asked the National Transitional Council, the de facto rebel authority, to collect and secure the missiles and to prevent more missiles from getting loose. When the depot here at Ga'a fell, however, those requests appeared to have had little effect.

"The rebels came from all over the western mountains, and they just took what they wanted," said Riyad, a supervisor of the ruined arsenal's small contingent of rebel guards.

Gaddafi has plan to blow up capital Tripoli

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has a "suicidal plan" to blow up the capital Tripoli if it is taken by rebels, the Kremlin's special envoy to Libya told a Russian newspaper on Thursday.

"The Libyan premier told me, if the rebels seize the city, we will cover it with missiles and blow it up," Kremlin envoy Mikhail Margelov said in an interview with the Izvestia daily.
Margelov met Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi last month. "I imagine that the Gaddafi regime does have such a suicidal plan," he added, saying that Gaddafi still had plentiful supplies of missiles and ammunition.

But Margelov, who has had rare access to senior Libyan officials, questioned reports that Gaddafi could be running out of arms in the drawn-out conflict. Gaddafi had still not used a single surface- to-surface missile, he argued. "Tripoli theoretically could lack ammunition for tanks, cartridges for rifles. But the colonel has got plenty of missiles and explosives."

Margelov met the Libyan prime minister on June 16 in Tripoli after holding talks in Benghazi earlier the same month. He has not met Gaddafi himself. Russia abstained from a vote on a March UN Security Council resolution that opened the way for foreign involvement and has since criticised the campaign -- particularly arms drops by France.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Wednesday for talks on Libya, where Lavrov sought to play down differences between the countries. However, the Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Moscow would not take part in talks on Libya later this week in Turkey, which has also seen itself as a mediator in the conflict.

Suicide Bombing kills 5 French soldiers in Afghanistan

The suicide blast occurs in the volatile east. In a southern village, senior officials attend the funeral of President Hamid Karzai's assassinated half brother.

A suicide bombing killed five French soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, representing one of France's largest one- day losses of the war. The attack took place in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, provincial spokesman Sabor Wafa said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed the deaths of five service members without specifying the nationality; French officials subsequently said the slain troops were French. France has said it will begin a phased withdrawal of its troops in Afghanistan.

Eastern Afghanistan, particularly the area close to the border with Pakistan, has been increasingly violent in recent weeks, with fighting between North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops and insurgents compounded by cross-border artillery fire from Pakistan. Also Wednesday, Western military officials reported that another military death occurred a day earlier in the south of Afghanistan.

The surge in violence comes as U.S. commanders prepare to begin a White House-ordered drawdown of American forces. Ten thousand troops are to depart before the end of the year, and an additional 23,000 are to leave next year. The mood across the south was jittery Wednesday as senior officials converged on the village of Karz, in Kandahar province, for the funeral of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the assassinated half brother of President Hamid Karzai.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, considered to be the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan, was shot and killed Tuesday by a police commander who had long been a trusted family associate. The governor of neighboring Helmand province escaped injury Wednesday when a powerful remote-controlled bomb exploded as his convoy was en route to the funeral.

The blast, in Kandahar's Maiwand district, injured two troops assigned to the Afghan intelligence service, but the governor, Gulab Mangal, was unhurt, aides said. Abdul Razaq, the police chief in Kandahar, said Wednesday that two other hidden bombs had been uncovered near Karz, the ancestral village of the Karzai clan, also apparently intended to target funeral attendees. Western troops had helped sweep the area beforehand.

In yet another violent episode Wednesday, insurgents used an explosives-laden truck to try to ram their way into a joint Afghan and Western base in Wardak province, close to the capital, Kabul. But the vehicle bomb went off prematurely when guards opened fire, and only the bomber was killed.

Egypt fires more than 600 top police officers

In a purge aimed at appeasing antigovernment protesters, Egyptian authorities fire 669 police officials linked to the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak.

The move comes as parliamentary elections are delayed. Egypt fired more than 600 high-ranking police officers Wednesday in a purge aimed at appeasing thousands of antigovernment protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square amid deepening divisions over wiping away the remnants of former President Hosni Mubarak's regime.

The move came on the same day the military council ruling the country announced that parliamentary elections planned for September would be delayed until October or November. The postponement will help new political parties challenge the more experienced Muslim Brotherhood, which was expected to win at least 25% of the seats in parliament.

Secular parties had pressed for a delay, fearing that a parliament heavily influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood's conservative agenda would threaten human rights and religious tolerance. The Islamist organization's reach may be further diminished by new regulations for choosing the 100-member assembly that will draft a new constitution. The firing of 669 police officers was the biggest reshuffle in the Interior Ministry's history.

It includes 505 brigadier generals, 82 colonels and 37 officers charged in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the weeks-long revolution that overthrew Mubarak on Feb. 11. The announcement came during the sixth day of demonstrations in Tahrir Square by activists seeking to pressure the interim government to bring Mubarak and members of his regime to justice.

The government and military council fear that the return of tents and banners to the square will further disrupt a nation facing labor strikes, a troubled economy and political unrest. "The firings are to gradually dismantle the police state we used to live in," said Ammar Ali Hassan, head of the Middle East Center for research and political studies.

"Protesters have succeeded in forcing security officials and the police into such changes, despite police efforts to keep the system they had before the Jan. 25 revolution." So far, only one police officer has been found guilty of killing demonstrators last winter. He was sentenced to death. The country is awaiting the trials of Mubarak and former Interior Minister Habib Adli, both of whom have been accused in the deaths of protesters.

Libyan rebels desperately short of funds

Even as rebel commanders predict victory is near, the rebel leadership is short of cash to fight the rebellion and run civilian affairs.
The lucrative oil industry has been shut down by the fighting.

In early April, Mazin Ramadan left his American wife and two children in Seattle and flew to this Libyan rebel stronghold to help the opposition sort out its shaky finances.

Three months later, things are looking as bleak as ever. "We're broke," said Ramadan, a Libyan American who founded a software tech company in Seattle and advises the rebel Transitional National Council on finances and oil. Even as rebel commanders predict that victory over Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is near, the rebel leadership is desperately short of cash to fight the rebellion and run civilian affairs.

The lucrative Libyan oil industry, which normally earns billions of dollars in hard currency, has been shut down by the fighting. Salaries for the rebel government's workers haven't been paid in two months. There is precious little cash to buy the imported fuel needed for the war effort and for the economy in eastern Libya, which the rebels control.

The council is beseeching Arab and Western nations to offer cash or credit. "We're getting decimated on the financial front lines," Ramadan said this week. As he spoke, the lights flickered and died in the conference room at a villa dating to the Italian colonial era that serves as a council office in downtown Benghazi. Fuel shortages have forced daily six-hour brownouts.

The council has been buying fuel in Europe on credit. But last week, a European financial company that had provided $500 million in loans told the council that it could no longer shoulder the risk and shut down the credit line. About $100 million donated by Qatar has nearly been spent, Ramadan said, and $200 million promised by Turkey has yet to arrive.

Several tankers loaded with fuel from Europe have left the Benghazi port without unloading after the council couldn't pay cash, he said. The vast petrochemical complexes at Port Brega and Ras Lanuf, seized from the rebels by government forces this spring, have been shut down. Also closed is the natural gas pipeline that normally fuels electricity production in Benghazi and other eastern cities. That means that rebel leaders in the country that is the world's 17th-largest producer of oil must import all their fuel.

Several nations have promised to provide cash, Ramadan said, but only Qatar has delivered. "We hear a lot of promises, but it's a lot easier to promise than to deliver," he said. "We don't count on it unless it's sitting in our account." Ramadan said he is pursuing new credit lines. His two cellphones rang constantly as he spoke. The council has sought loan guarantees backed by billions of dollars in frozen Libyan government assets overseas. But weeks of negotiations have failed to pry loose guarantees,

Ramadan said. In a July 7 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, four U.S. senators led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Clinton to help unlock the assets for Libyan humanitarian aid. The letter reminded Clinton of her recent promise to help put the rebel council "on firmer financial footing." Rebel finances "are in a perilous state," the letter said. The United States has authorized $25 million in nonlethal military assistance to the rebels and $53 million in humanitarian aid.

But Ramadan said loan guarantees backed by frozen Libyan assets would have a much bigger effect on the effort to topple Kadafi, a declared U.S. policy goal. The main crisis in the east is financial, not humanitarian. Thanks to unusually heavy winter rains, eastern Libya is flush with grains, fruits and vegetables.

Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi prepared to leave

France says it has had contacts with envoys from Muammar Gaddafi who say the Libyan leader is "prepared to leave".

"The Libyan regime is sending messengers everywhere, to Turkey, to New York, to Paris" offering to discuss Col Gaddafi's exit, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told French radio.

But he added that such contacts did not constitute negotiations. France played a key role in launching Nato- led strikes in Libya, under a UN-mandated mission to protect civilians. Mr Juppe told France Info radio on Tuesday: "We are receiving emissaries who are telling us: 'Gaddafi is prepared to leave. Let's discuss it.' "There are contacts but it's not a negotiation proper at this stage."

Mr Juppe did not say who the emissaries were. French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said: "These are emissaries who say they are coming in the name of Gaddafi. What is important is that we send them the same message and stay in close contact with our allies on this."

Col Gaddafi remains in power in Tripoli despite almost four months of air strikes by international forces, leading to fears of stalemate. Rebels are holding eastern Libya and pockets in the west, but have not made decisive moves towards the capital. France and other coalition countries have insisted that the Libyan leader must stand down for hostilities to end.

"There is a consensus on how to end the crisis, which is that Gaddafi has to leave power," Mr Juppe reiterated.

Libyan rebels boost firepower with homemade weapons

Sadiq Mubakar Krain's blue overalls are soaked with sweat as he works on an improvised rocket launcher for the rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi.

"This is the first time I make one of these," said Krain, 52, pointing to a launcher that consists of 16 rocket tubes scavenged from a military helicopter. A bespectacled former foreman at an oil company, Krain has fixed the tubes in a welded frame and is working on the electronics that will allow rebel fighters to fire individual rockets at will.

"I have learned to make other things and to weld, so God willing, I have got this one right," Krain said at workshop where he and his colleagues build weapons out of whatever they can lay their hands on. The ingenuity on display is a product of necessity. The Misrata rebels have captured some weapons and others are shipped to them via the city's port.

But heavy arms are in short supply and those the rebels have obtained need to be adapted to match the firepower and mobility of the government forces they are fighting. The rebels in Misrata, Libya's third largest city about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, have been fighting for the past four months to end Gaddafi's 41-year rule.

They have moved the front line from inside this city to the outskirts of Zlitan, a neighboring town now blocking the rebels' advance toward Tripoli. The intense pace of the workers in this shop near the center of Misrata -- who include former teachers, engineers and a truck driver -- suggests the rebels are preparing the munitions for the next push toward Zlitan. MEND AND MAKE DO Until now, the workshop has been focused on repairing equipment.

When the front line moved forward last week, most of the workers here were transferred to a new repair shop closer to Zlitan so that gun crews did not have to drive 36 km (20 miles) each way to have their weapons fixed. The shop in Misrata still handles major repairs, but is now concentrating on preparing new weapons and the trucks on which to mount them.

The pace is intense -- work goes on from early in the morning to late at night seven days a week. The main job is to build new housings for heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns that will be mounted on the back of pickup trucks. The weapons are placed facing backwards so the vehicles reverse into position to open fire.

There are about 10 new welded steel mounts nearly ready for 14.5 mm machine guns taken from tanks or helicopters to be attached, while one is ready to go. Instead of an electronic system to move it, the gun can be adjusted manually up and down or side to side. The trigger works using the brake line from a small car and there is a rudimentary safety catch.

LOADING BULLETS Salah Mohammed, 45, proudly shows off the new gun, plus a homemade round for it made using used scavenged casings. The workshop has also devised a basic welded tool with a handle to push the rounds into the links that will feed the ammunition into the machine gun, something that cannot be done by hand. "One press of the trigger," Mohammed says, pressing the trigger for a second to demonstrate, "is nine bullets." "So we need many bullets." In the corner, workers attach steel plates to an ancient pickup truck.

Mohammed, a former engineer at an oil company, says the truck was an old wreck but its engine has been rebuilt. By far the most feverish activity among the 35 workers in the workshop is centered on a small group working to finish rebuilding an anti-aircraft gun. The workers have stripped the gun, which has a seat for the gunner, of its four 14.5 mm machine guns and replaced them with two 23 mm anti-aircraft guns.

Krain says the change of caliber is partly because the bigger guns have a range of 6 km compared with the 4 km of the 14.5 mm guns. But he says it also because the gun has a psychological impact on the pro-Gaddafi troops. "When they hear the sound the gun makes," he pauses to make a long, deep 'doof, doof, doof' sound to mimic the gun, "they run away." Krain, his hands coated in oil, returns to work on his rocket launcher.

"I want to help finish the war by Ramadan," he says. Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer, starts in early August. "Our work will not be over then, we have much to do. But I want the fighting to stop by then."

Ahmad Wali Karzai assassination 'huge propaganda boost for Taliban'

The assassination of Ahmad Wali Karzai, the chairman of the Kandahar Provincial Council and President Hamid Karzai's half-brother, is an enormous propaganda and moral boost for the Taliban.

It is as yet unclear who was responsible for Ahmad Wali's assassination. Even if it was carried out, as one report suggests, by a body guard with a personal grudge, it will certainly be exploited by the Taliban for propaganda purposes and will damage fragile public confidence in Karzai's government.

Ahmad Wali was one of the two key government players in the important southern province of Kandahar, which the insurgency would likely have considered as priority targets for assassination. The other is the police chief, Brigadier General Abdul Razik, another powerful Pashtun. Wali was the de facto governor of Kandahar, eclipsing the influence both of the official governor and the provincial council, of which he was chairman.

The provincial council does not wield any real authority. Neither does it have direct control over appointments to, or deployment of, security forces, even in Kandahar City. Ahmed Shah Khan, an influential Pashtun tribal elder could well emerge as Ahmad Karzai's successor on the council (since the deputy chairman was also killed in this attack) in the provincial council, in the form of a consensus candidate.

He is very unlikely to exert the overarching political and economic influence that Ahmad Karzai exerted through his financial clout, and close ties to the US. His assassination is likely to drive home a very stark message to the Afghan population, that the Afghan state under President Karzai is incapable of providing security, even for its own leadership.

As such, this will make it much harder for Nato to persuade the local population to switch their allegiance to the Afghan government as ISAF forces begin to hand over the security lead to Afghan. The immediate commercial impact of his death will be felt by the string of businesses owned by the 'King of Kandahar,' as the staunchly pro-US Ahmad Karzai was known; their future is now unclear.

These include influential private security companies, such as Watan Risk Management and Asia Security Group, which have contracts with ISAF for protecting its supply convoys. The latter also runs its own a private paramilitary unit in the province – the Kandahar Strike Force that assisted US Special Forces and the CIA to seek out and kill senior Taliban insurgents. Ahmad also owned or ran a string of hotels, real estate companies and even a Toyota car dealership.

He will also be remembered for the extensive narcotics empire that he ran from Kandahar, under the aegis of the provincial government. The smuggling operations he set up are unlikely to fracture in his absence. The Taliban are also quite likely to exploit the 'sense of shock' in Kandahar City by launching another major attack in the coming days.

Ahmad Karzai's funeral is a likely target, especially as this will be attended by prominent government and security force figures, and will be another test of the effectiveness of Afghan and ISAF security measures.

Gaddafi forces launch counter attack

FORCES loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have launched a counterattack against rebel advance positions 50km southwest of Tripoli.

Loyalist forces fired half a dozen Grad rockets into the hamlet of Gualish.

The rebels replied with anti-tank fire as they sought to maintain their grip on Gualish, a key gateway on the road to the capital Tripoli that they seized on Wednesday.

Just hours before the government attack, NATO warplanes bombed positions in the area, the correspondent said. A colonel in the rebel forces said the raid struck near Asablah, 17km from Gualish.

In its daily update, the Western military alliance said its planes carried out 48 strike sorties on Saturday, with the focus on Misrata.

Meanwhile, rebel troops advancing into the loyalist stronghold of Zliten said today they lost one fighter and had 32 wounded by landmines laid by Gaddafi's retreating troops.

Insurgents pressing out westward from the long-besieged city of Misrata said the ordnance was laid by Gaddafi loyalists falling back from their positions around Zliten.

Zliten, once considered a bastion of Gaddafi forces, is a key link on the road from rebel-held Misrata to Tripoli.

Libyan rebels said they were preparing on Saturday to push forward in their drive on Tripoli from both the south and west in a bid to isolate Gaddafi in his ever-closer capital.

But the embattled leader remained defiant, telling supporters on Friday that "the regime in Libya will not fall."

After heavy fighting, rebel fighters captured the desert hamlet of Gualish on Wednesday, taking them closer to the strategic garrison town Gharyan and the last major objective standing between them and Tripoli to the north.

For now, they have set their sights on Asablah, on the road to Gharyan, 80km from Tripoli.

A second target in a three-pronged strategy is the coastal city of Zawiyah, one of the last major loyalist strongholds west of Tripoli.

And from a base in Misrata, 215 kilometres east of the capital, the rebels reported on Friday battling to within 2km of the centre of Zliten town with the loss of five dead and 17 wounded.

"When we take Zliten, enforced with Misrata, it gives us a clear path" to Tripoli, rebel spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said.

Syrian forces 'ordered to shoot to kill'

 

  Syrian security forces have reportedly killed more than 1,400 people and detained 10,000 others since March

Defectors of Syria’s security forces have described receiving orders from their superiors to fire live rounds at protesters to disperse them, according to Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based rights body released a statement on Saturday detailing interviews with eight soldiers and four members of secret security agencies it said had defected to the opposition since anti-government protests erupted in March.

The interviewees said they had participated in the government crackdown in the Syrian cities of Deraa, Izraa, Baniyas, Homs, Jisr al-Shughur, Aleppo, and Damascus, the capital.

The soldiers also reported participating in and witnessing the shooting and wounding of dozens of protesters, and the arbitrary arrests and detentions of hundreds of civilians.

All the interviewees told HRW that their superiors had told them that they were fighting infiltrators, salafists, and terrorists, but were surprised to encounter unarmed protesters instead. They said they were ordered to fire on the civilians, including children, in a number of instances.

The defectors also reported that those who refused orders to shoot on protesters ran the risk of being shot themselves. One of them said they witnessed a military officer shoot and kill two soldiers in Deraa for rejecting orders.

Syria's government has not responded to the allegations.

Human Rights Watch interviewed the defectors in person in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. Most of the interviewees gave testimony on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

"The testimony of these defectors provides further evidence that the killing of protesters was no accident but a result of a deliberate policy by senior figures in Syria to use deadly force to disperse protesters," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

"Syrian soldiers and officials should know that they too have not just a right but a duty to refuse such unlawful orders, and that those who deliberately kill or injure peaceful protesters will be subject to prosecution."

"The accounts of soldiers who were horrified enough at their commanders’ orders and deceit to flee should send a message to the UN and other countries that they need to do more to put a stop to these brutal attacks on civilians," Whitson said.

Syrian security forces have killed more than 1,400 people and detained 10,000 others since March, according to Syrian rights groups.

Member of Syria's secret police - Homs

One member of Syria’s secret police - referred to locally as mukhabarat - told HRW he was deployed in Homs, Syria’s third largest city, on April 19, to help security forces violently disperse tens of thousands of protesters staging a sit-in in the central Clock Tower Square.

"The protesters had sat down in the square. We were told to disperse them with violence if needed. We were there with air force security, army, and shabbiha (armed supporters of the government who do not belong to security forces). At around 3:30am, we got an order... to shoot at the protesters. We were shooting for more than half an hour."

"There were dozens and dozens of people killed and wounded. Thirty minutes later, earth diggers and fire trucks arrived. The diggers lifted the bodies and put them in a truck. I don’t know where they took them. The wounded ended up at the military hospital in Homs. And then the fire trucks started cleaning the square."

Soldier of Presidential Guard - Damascus

A conscript who was a member of the Presidential Guard recounted how he was deployed on April 18 to Harasta, a suburb of Damascus, to quell a protest.

"They gave each one of us a Kalashnikov (rifle) with two magazines, and there was more ammunition in the vehicles. They also gave us electric tasers. They told us we were being sent to fight the gangs because security services needed reinforcement. We were surprised (when we got to Harasta) because we couldn’t see any gangs, just civilians, including some women and children, in the street, and members of the mukhabarat firing at them.

"I was in a group with five other soldiers from my unit. We received clear orders to shoot at civilians from the Presidential Guard officers and from the 4th military battalion, although normally we don't get orders from other units.

"The exact orders were "load and shoot." There were no conditions, no prerequisites. We got closer to the demonstrators, and when we were some five metres away, the officers shouted "fire!" At that moment, the five of us defected and ran over to the demonstrators’ side throwing our weapons to them while running away."

Sergeant Raqeeb Awwal - Al-Hara

Raqeeb Awwal, a first sergeant, who was posted in the southern town of al-Hara, near Deraa, described the orders his squad received when the army circled the town on May 10.

"Snipers were on rooftops. Their orders were, 'If anyone goes out on the street, detain or shoot'. I recall watching a guy go out to smoke outside and then being shot and killed by a sniper."

He also described the arrest campaign against protesters, including children, in the town.

"We surrounded the town for days. I saw how the snipers would shoot on anyone who went out of his house. Then we moved in. The mukhabarat who were with us had lists of people to arrest.

"They had details: this person tore a poster of the president or this person shouted "with excitement" at an anti-government protest. I saw many of those detained and some looked as young as 12.

"Six buses came and took the detained. We then gathered all the motorbikes in the town’s centre, and a tank crushed them. We talked among ourselves about how some soldiers stole gold and money from houses. In one house, a colleague told me that they found one million Syrian pounds (around $20,000) and his commanding officer decided to confiscate the money saying it was being used to purchase weapons even though my colleague told me there was no such evidence.

He added that the army opened fire in the coastal town of Bayda on members of security services wearing civilian clothes because they mistook their identity. Other defectors reported that security services later dressed in army clothes to avoid such shootings.

Sniper - Izraa

A conscript trained as a sniper was deployed in Izraa, a town near Deraa, on April 25, three days after security forces had shot 28 protesters over two days, told HRW:

"I was in Squad 14 of the 4th Regiment. We were around 300 soldiers deployed to Izraa. I had heard so much about foreign armed groups that I was eager to fight them.

"But then [we received] the following orders: 'Don’t shoot at the armed civilians (Syrian secret police). They are with us. Shoot at the people whom they shoot at'.

"We were all shocked after hearing his words, as we had imagined that the people were killed by foreign armed groups, not by the security forces. We realised that our orders were to shoot at our own people."

Soldier - Deraa

A soldier who was deployed for a month in Daraa before defecting on June 1, said:

"We received orders to kill protesters. Some military refused the orders and were shot with a handgun. Two were killed in front of me, by someone in the rank of lieutenant (muqaddam). I don’t know his name. He said they were traitors."

Soldier of Special Forces - Baniyas and Markeb

A member of regiment 45 in the Special Forces, deployed in the coastal areas of Baniyas and Markeb, told HRW about the arrest campaign he witnessed in the village of Markeb:

"We had around 400 names of people whom we wanted to detain. We went to the village. Then a woman’s protest came out refusing the entry of the army (we had not yet detained anyone) inside the village.

"We started going into homes. We would break into closed houses. We detained so many people. Some men tried to escape through a side road in a valley. But the army opened fire on those trying to escape. We brought those detained to the center of the village, stepping on them and insulting them.

"A security officer stood on a man, yelling "Who is your god? (Say) Bashar al-Asad." We had so many detainees in the area that we used the Banyas stadium as a detention facility."

The soldier also said that the security forces detained children.

"I saw the list of wanted individuals. So many were born in 1993, 1994, 1995. Mere teenagers," he said.

"We later entered Baniyas and also detained men and children. By the end of our first day in Baniyas, I asked an officer how many detainees we had taken that day; he said around 2,500 in Baniyas alone, all taken to the Baniyas stadium. People would get beaten in the bus on the way there and in the stadium as well."

Lieutenant - Damascus

A lieutenant in squad 14, posted in Damascus, described the briefing:

"Each morning we had guidance briefings. They would tell us there are gangs and infiltrators. They would show us pictures of dead soldiers and security forces."

Soldier - Damascus

Soldiers were reportedly not allowed to watch television in private to avoid any of them watching TV channels that aired anti-government information. Officers could watch television but only Syrian state television and Dunya TV, a pro-government channel owned by Rami Makhlouf, a cousin and close ally of President Bashar al-Asad.

A conscript doing his military service in Damascus said:

"Every night they used to summon us in a stadium-like place in the military barrack and make us watch Dunya TV from a big TV screen. It was all scenes from Deraa showing people killed by what they reported as foreign armed groups.

"Officers would repeatedly tell us that there is a 'foreign plot' going on in Deraa. Watching Dunya TV every night between 20:00 and 22:00, we had the firm belief that there is a foreign conspiracy against which we need to fight and protect our people."

Soldier of Special Missions Unit - Aleppo

A member of the Special Missions Unit, an elite unit under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry, described his unit’s role in cracking down on university students in Aleppo:

"We were sent to the university dorms to arrest people, with a simple order: 'Go in and detain'.

"We must have detained more than 200 people in one day around late April and early May. We wanted to scare them and other students to prevent them from protesting again. Our job was to detain the students and take them to the branches of the mukhabarat, mostly Military Intelligence.

"We would beat people all the way to the bus. We didn’t know what would happen to the detainees after we dropped them off with the mukhabarat."

NATO Warplanes Strike Near Besieged Libyan City

The ammunition of a rebel fighter is seen as he arrives at Green Square in the Kish, Benghazi July 6, 2011, from all the freed areas of Libya to demonstrate against Muammar Gaddafi and his regime.

A NATO airstrike has targeted a military position near Libya's western city of Misrata, where pro-government forces have been battling rebels.

NATO said Saturday that its warplanes hit a missile firing position near Tawurgha, a town south of rebel-held Misrata.

A statement released by the alliance says forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were using the position to launch "indiscriminate attacks" on civilians in areas including Misrata.

Misrata has been under siege for months. On Friday, activists and medical workers said at least five rebels had been killed and dozens wounded as pro-government forces shelled targets near the city.

Meanwhile, rebels have been trying to advance toward the Libyan capital, Tripoli, after gaining control of two small towns south of the capital earlier this week.

Senior Rebel Is Doubtful Qaddafi Can Be Routed

For months now, military leaders in the rebel capital, Benghazi, have boldly predicted lightning advances by their fighters and an imminent rout of the forces loyal to Gaddafi.

Muammar el-Qaddafi in Tripoli that would finally snuff out his brutal four- decade rule. The rebels have made some advances in the west in recent days, taking a small village in the Nafusah Mountains and pushing westward some distance from Misurata toward Tripoli. But a senior rebel military officer here in the mountains who said he defected last month from the Libyan Army called the prospects of a collapse by Colonel Qaddafi's forces highly unlikely.

The officer, Col. Mohammed Ali Ethish, who now commands opposition fighters here, said that even if the rebels were able to reach Tripoli, shortages of fuel, personnel and weapons made it unlikely that they would try to invade or march on the heavily fortified city.

A more realistic possibility, he said, is for rebels and others within the city to rise up against Colonel Qaddafi. "I hope that when we do reach the borders of Tripoli, the revolutionaries there free it," Colonel Ethish said. "If we don't go in with an organized army, there's going to be a huge mess."

In the meantime, he said, the mountain fighters were focused on the more modest goal of winning cities in the region, either by persuading Colonel Qaddafi's soldiers to defect or by driving them out in battle. His candid comments raised the possibility of a protracted endgame in the Libyan conflict.

They also provided little comfort to NATO countries that face increasing pressure to end the bombing campaign and seem desperate to find a quick exit, either by arming the rebels or by killing Colonel Qaddafi with airstrikes.

Italy bringing back aircraft carrier and its hundreds of sailors home from Libya

Italy said Thursday it was cutting back its participation in NATO's Libya campaign, bringing an aircraft carrier and its hundreds of sailors home, in the latest indication that the alliance is growing weary after nearly four months of bombing.

Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said Thursday that the drawdown would trim Italy's expenditures by one-third _ from (EURO)142 million ($202 million) for the first three months of the mission, to (EURO)58 million through to September. He said the aircraft carrier Garibaldi would be replaced by a smaller ship, freeing up nearly 1,000 military personnel.

He said Italy's commitment, however, remained the same since the Garibaldi's three aircraft would be replaced by jets at Italian bases that would still fly missions. The cutbacks were part of an overall trimming of Italy's military missions abroad. It was the strongest signal yet of a growing weariness with the war among some NATO allies.

Several participants have indicated they may start reducing their involvement, and the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted overwhelmingly against giving President Barack Obama the authority to continue the military mission, though it stopped short of cutting off funds.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi is under pressure to withdraw from the Libya campaign from his key ally the Northern League, which has opposed the war because of the cost and fears of an influx of migrants. After a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Berlusconi said he had always been against the war but had his "hands tied" once the U.N. authorized a no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians.

Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler, is letting NATO aircraft use its military bases and has also been flying sorties. NATO sought to downplay Italy's reduction. Alliance spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said she hadn't seen reports of the Italian decision but said Italy had been a "very reliable and strong contributor" to the mission.

"We continue to rely on Italy for support as we do on all allies and partners," she said, adding that NATO was confident it had all the resources and military assets needed to do the job. NATO's campaign was originally intended to deliver a sharp, devastating military blow that would allow the opposition to quickly oust Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

But with the campaign dragging on inconclusively, there have been increasing international calls for a negotiated end to the war. France, which fired the first airstrikes in the campaign March 19, said Thursday it is determined to fight Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and will urge its parliament to extend the operation.

NATO took over command of the initial attacks on Libya on March 31. The airstrikes have now lasted longer than the 78-day bombing of Serbia in 1999, the only other such aerial bombing campaign the alliance has undertaken.

Syria troops kill 22 in Hama crackdown

Syrian troops killed at least 22 people in a crackdown they launched in the flashpoint central city of Hama, a human rights group said Wednesday.

"At least 22 people were killed in Hama and more than 80 wounded, some of them seriously," Ammar Qurabi of the National Organisation for Human Rights said.

"The wounded are being treated in two hospitals in Hama," he said in a statement, adding that troops had entered the Al-Hurani hospital.

"A large number of Hama residents have fled either to the nearby town of Al-Salamiya or twoards Damascus," Qurabi said.

The US State Department on Tuesday urged the Syrian regime to withdraw its forces from Hama, a city of 800,000 people that saw a massive anti-government demonstration by as many as half a million people last Friday.

"We urge the government of Syria to immediately halt its intimidation and arrest campaign, to pull its security forces back from Hama and other cities, and to allow Syrians to express their opinions freely so that a genuine transition to democracy can take place," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.

At Least 11 Libyan Rebels Killed in Misrata Clashes

A Libyan child stands in a house damaged by a rocket supposedly fired by pro-Gadhafi forces and which injured four people in Misrata, Libya.

At least 11 Libyan rebels have been killed in clashes with pro-government forces near the opposition-held city of Misrata.

Medics and rebels say the deaths occurred late Monday and Tuesday after forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi shelled targets on the outskirts of the city, about 200 kilometers east of Tripoli. They say more than 40 rebels have been wounded.

The fighting comes after NATO and Russian officials failed to narrow their differences over the Western air campaign over Libya.

Russia accused the alliance of interpreting a United Nations resolution on military intervention any way it wishes.

Separately, one of Gadhafi's sons warned that his family will not quit or leave Libya. French TV channel TF1 quoted Saif al-Islam Gadhafi as saying "We will never surrender."

The developments come amid Libyan government reports of talks between representatives of Gadhafi and members of the opposition that has been fighting to oust him since February.

The African Union has also been trying to get formal Libyan peace talks going.

At the end of their summit last week, African leaders endorsed a plan to co-sponsor Libya talks with the United Nations and other international organizations. But there has been no reported progress.

Baghdad blasts leave 35 dead

Two bombs have exploded outside a government building north of Baghdad, killing at least 35 and wounded dozens of people.

A car bomb and another device detonated in the car park of the municipal building in Taji, 20km (12 miles) north of the capital.
Officials say the second device exploded as people tended to the victims of the first.

 Iraqi officials say a car bomb and another explosive went off Tuesday in the town of Taji, about 20 kilometers north of the capital. They say more than two dozen people were wounded in the blasts.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

On Sunday, attacks targeting Iraqi police and soldiers killed at least eight people, and a rocket attack on Baghdad's fortified Green Zone killed three women and two children.

Separately, the United States on Tuesday opened a consulate in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra, a burgeoning oil-industry hub.


The U.S. embassy is expanding its diplomatic presence in Iraq, as the U.S. military prepares to withdraw about 50,000 remaining troops from the country by the end of this year.

Violence in Iraq has dropped sharply since the peak of sectarian violence in 2006 to 2007. But Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias continue to carry out bombings and other attacks, many targeting Iraqi security forces.

Libya Looks Toward Talks, But Quick Results Unlikely

There are reports of talks between representatives of the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and members of the opposition that have been fighting to oust him since February. There is skepticism about the potential for a quick solution among analysts.

The Libyan conflict has been marked by a series of rebel advances followed by Gadhafi's regime counterattacks. Progress on the ground has been slow in spite of more than 5,000 airstrikes by NATO war planes since the end of March.

Some NATO officials have, from time to time, predicted Gadhafi’s imminent downfall, but that has not happened.

Alia Brahimi of the London School of Economics is encouraged by reports of talks to end the conflict. “In Libya the end game has to be a negotiated settlement. I think that the news today is very positive. We’ve always been hoping that there’s been a political process in the background," she said.

Brahimi says there is more to the Libyan regime than Gadhafi and his family. She says some groups - like tribes - are willing to see Gadhafi go if their interests are protected. “The only way out of this was going to be for elements of the regime to defect, to reach an agreement and then for some sort of exit strategy to be provided by them to Gadhafi. And I think the only thing that could make that scenario possible is talks," she said.

Brahimi says talks could allow both sides to avoid having to live up to their shared slogan: fight to the death.

An early advocate of western intervention is former British Ambassador to Libya Richard Dalton. He says pressure from the NATO mission, combined with internal dissent from regime supporters, will ultimately end Gadhafi’s 42-year reign.

But Dalton says it could take another two months or more to hapen. “I do believe that those pressures are steadily building up and that in due course there will be a series of risings against the Libyan regime, against Colonel Gadhafi and his family, of the kind that we saw back in February and which were so savagely suppressed. This time, if it happens I believe the result will be a change of regime in Libya," he said.

Meanwhile, the African Union has been trying to get formal Libyan peace talks going. At the end of their recent summit, leaders endorsed a plan to co-sponsor Libya talks with the United Nations and other international organizations.

But Richard Dalton says an arrest warrant recently issued for Gadhafi by the International Criminal Court makes it difficult for the United Nations to get involved, or for a new Libyan government to allow Gadhafi to stay. "There’s been some talk of him staying in Libya but outside the political struggle. I do think that was always unrealistic. It’s even more unrealistic now that there is an arrest warrant from the ICC against him," he said.

But Dalton says the ICC move will not necessarily make it more difficult for Gadhafi to flee Libya, if he decides to do so, because many countries are willing to ignore the indictment. Other analysts say it does complicate his ability to find refuge.

NATO feels the pressure from Libya campaign

Libyans pray in the main square in Benghazi, the rebels' de facto capital. Pressure is building for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting soon.

With victory still elusive after 15 weeks of bombing, Western allies arrayed against Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi are racing to crack his regime before their own coalition fractures.

Even as Libyan rebel fighters begin to show improvement and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization increases airstrikes in the western part of the country, signs of friction have appeared within NATO. Members have expressed concern about declining munitions inventories and warned that the costs and stresses of the campaign cannot be sustained.

The eight nations shouldering the military burden have been pushing in vain for the other 20 NATO members to take on a larger role. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, major players disagree among themselves on the best strategy. The urgent desire for a breakthrough has caused some members to take riskier steps in the hopes of defeating Kadafi quickly, including airdrops of weapons to rebels, which the French military recently announced it had carried out.

Several signs of discontent have become public. In the Netherlands, Defense Minister Hans Hillen complained last week of "mission creep" and suggested that the campaign's advocates were deluded in believing they could crush Kadafi.

"People who thought that merely by throwing some bombs it would not only help the people, but also convince Kadafi that he could step down or alter his policy were a little bit naive," Hillen told reporters in Brussels.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini scolded the coalition over the accidental killing of civilians and called for a cease-fire — a step that U.S., British and French officials say would allow Kadafi to regroup.

In Washington, the Obama administration faces pressure from Republicans as well as antiwar Democrats. A GOP-sponsored measure to curb U.S. participation failed in a vote on the House floor, partly because some Republicans felt it wasn't restrictive enough.

Norway, whose small air force has carried out a disproportionate 10% of the strikes with six fighter planes, last month became the first country to set an end date to its role. The government has been facing calls for withdrawal from its leftist coalition partners. Norway's Defense Ministry said it planned to reduce its contribution to four fighters and to withdraw entirely by Aug. 1.

Senior European and American officials insist there has always been such dissent over NATO campaigns and that the players who count remain firmly committed. The alliance formally agreed last month to extend the mission, originally planned for 90 days, for another three months.

Officials and outside observers also acknowledge that pressure is growing for the coalition to deliver a knockout blow. If not, the Western powers, under acute economic stress and struggling with other military obligations, might have to negotiate an exit on terms that could leave Kadafi some leverage.
"All the countries are watching an economic and political time clock," said Jorge Benitez, a veteran NATO watcher at the Atlantic Council of the United States. "The question is: Whose coalition will break first, Kadafi's or NATO?"

NATO also faces pressure from outside the alliance. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov said Monday that his nation and NATO "so far don't see eye to eye" on how the alliance is implementing the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the campaign in Libya, the Russia 24 TV channel reported.

Lavrov particularly criticized the reported French air drops of weapons, saying they violate a U.N. arms embargo on Libya. "This also applies to sending instructors to pass on military knowledge and skills; all of this is covered by the weapons embargo," Lavrov said at a news conference in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where he met with NATO officials.

Kadafi may be seeking to heighten the rifts within NATO, issuing a statement Friday threatening to "move the battle to Europe."

The greatest source of internal pressure on NATO is from leftist and anti-interventionist parties, whose complaints are increasing even as polls suggest that the European public isn't particularly upset by the military engagement.

In Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has been a strong backer of the campaign, but it is under pressure from a coalition partner, the Northern League, which fears the fighting will lead to a further influx of African immigrants.

France and Britain, which have led the way on the campaign, are bearing the brunt of the military burden and costs, and they are eager to bring the conflict to an end. Their officials have been looking for ways to intensify the campaign and bring it to a close, parting company with the Obama administration, which has been urging patience.

The U.S. has reduced its role to logistical and intelligence support after carrying out intense airstrikes in the campaign's opening days and has declined British and French invitations to resume a combat role.

NATO also has had to scramble to provide enough precision bombs to Denmark and Norway, which had been running low during the course of the campaign's 5,000 strike sorties.

Western officials worry that the reluctance of many NATO members to take part, and the complaints of the antiwar parties at home, may be read by Kadafi and his supporters as reason to continue the fight.

Although President Obama last week dismissed Republican pressure as no more than election season politics, a senior administration official said their efforts came at a cost.
"It sent exactly the wrong signal to the other side," the official said.

U.S. and European officials say they believe Kadafi's camp may be on its last legs, but few insiders predict a quick end. Luis Ocampo Moreno, the International Criminal Court prosecutor who announced an arrest warrant for Kadafi, predicted last month that collapse was close — in "two or three months."

With such uncertainty, pressure will continue to build for a negotiated solution, analysts say.
Retired British Army Brig. Ben Barry, senior fellow for land forces at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said he sees increasing support, including from the Italians, for a cease-fire that would allow Kadafi's forces to remain in place — a solution the United States and other key NATO members have so far rejected.

Barry, who served as a peacekeeper in Bosnia-Herzegovina, fears such a deal would allow Kadafi to "behave like an intransigent Bosnian warlord," maneuvering to retain power in a western Libya rump state, "controlling energy resources — and then reverting to previous bad behavior."