France, Britain say NATO must step up Libya bombing

The criticism by London and Paris followed new shelling of Misrata on Monday and the collapse of an African Union peace initiative

France and Britain, who first launched air attacks on Libya in coalition with the United States, said on Tuesday NATO must step up bombing of Moammar Gadhafi’s heavy weapons to protect civilians.

NATO took over air operations from the three nations on 31 March but heavy government bombardment of the besieged western city of Misrata has continued unabated with hundreds of civilians reported killed.

The criticism by London and Paris followed new shelling of Misrata on Monday and the collapse of an African Union (A U)peace initiative.

Echoing rebel complaints, Juppe told France Info radio, “It’s not enough.”

He said NATO must stop Gadhafi shelling civilians and take out heavy weapons bombarding Misrata.

British foreign secretary William Hague also said NATO must intensify attacks, calling on other alliance countries to match London’s supply of extra ground attack aircraft in Libya.

NATO, which stepped up air strikes around Misrata and the eastern battlefront city of Ajdabiyah at the weekend under a U N mandate to protect civilians, rejected the criticism.

“NATO is conducting its military operations in Libya with vigour within the current mandate. The pace of the operations is determined by the need to protect the population,” it said.

Libyan state television said on Tuesday a NATO strike on the town of Kikla, south of Tripoli, had killed civilians and members of the police force. It did not give details.

Peace talks fail

The spat within the alliance came after heavy shelling and street fighting in the coastal city of Misrata on Monday where Human Rights Watch says at least 250 people, mostly civilians, have died.

Libyan rebels rejected an African Union peace plan on Monday because it did not include the removal of Gadhafi, who they accused of indiscriminate attacks on his own people.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, hailed as a hero by the rebels, led calls for military intervention in Libya and his warplanes were the first to attack Gadhafi’s forces.

In a barbed reference to the NATO takeover, Juppe added: “NATO must play its role fully. It wanted to take the lead in operations, we accepted that.”

NATO is unpopular among many insurgents, both because they believe it initially reacted slowly to government attacks and because it has killed almost 20 rebels in two mistaken bombings. Although they have recently praised the alliance after its attacks helped break a major government assault on Ajdabiyah, many of the rebels in the field still hailed Sarkozy. The rebels took up position about 40 km west of Ajdabiyah on Tuesday after clashes on Monday that left at least three of their fighters dead in a rocket attack.

There was no sign of fighting on Tuesday between Ajdabiyah and the oil port of Brega where the eastern front has see-sawed between the combatants for weeks.

The Red Cross said it would send a team to Misrata to help civilians trapped by fighting.

Rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said after talks with an African peace mission in rebel-held Benghazi on Monday:

“The African Union initiative does not include the departure of Gadhafi and his sons from the Libyan political scene, therefore it is outdated.”

The AU said in a statement it would continue the mission.

Gadhafi’s son Saif ruled out his father stepping down, calling the idea ridiculous.

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Gadhafi forces of executing prisoners, killing protesters and attacking refugees.

Scorn

Rebels in Misrata, their last major bastion in western Libya and under siege for six weeks, scorned reports that Gadhafi had accepted a ceasefire, saying they were fighting house-to-house battles with his forces.

Rebels said that Gadhafi’s forces had intensified the assault, for the first time firing truck-mounted, Russian-made Grad rockets into the city, where conditions for civilians are said to be desperate.

NATO attacks outside Ajdabiyah on Sunday helped break the biggest assault by Gadhafi’s forces on the eastern front for at least a week. The town is the gateway to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi 150 km north up the Mediterranean coast.

Gadhafi’s former foreign minister Moussa Koussa, speaking in Britain where he fled in March, called on “everybody, all the parties, to work to avoid taking Libya into a civil war”.

“This will lead to bloodshed and make Libya a new Somalia,” he told the BBC. “More than that we refuse to divide Libya. The unity of Libya is essential to any solution and any settlement in Libya.”

source:http://www.livemint.com/2011/04/12161933/France-Britain-say-NATO-must.html

Libya rebels defend oil port; look to West for help

Libya is the fourth biggest oil exporter in Africa after Nigeria, Algeria and Angola, producing around 1.8 million barrels a day, with reserves of 42 billion barrels

A Libyan jet streaked low over one of the country’s main oil terminals and rebel anti-aircraft guns unleashed a deafening salvo, but petrochemical engineer Ali al-Medan barely flinched.

“I had to come to work. What to do?” he said after the barrage fired by opposition fighters stationed outside the gates of the Harouge Oil Company in Ras Lanuf, the front line town in their battle against Moamer Kadhafi.

The 50-year-old had stopped on the way home from a day’s work to offer food and water to a motley group of a dozen insurgents manning anti-aircraft cannons mounted on the back of Toyota trucks.

Some wore camouflage while a couple sported oil company overalls.

Medan said production was continuing at the giant installation on the Mediterranean coast, even though exports through Ras Lanuf have largely dried up because of the fierce fighting raging a few kilometres (miles) away.

“Some people are still working as normal but there are no ships coming in. Normally they ship it from here to Italy and the rest of the world. It is the number one (terminal) in Libya.”

But the petrochemical plant neighbouring the oil terminal, where he works, provides power and water to the town “so we have to work. My wife and family are in Ras Lanuf, I fear for them.”

The Mediterranean coastal town has done well from Libya’s oil boom since Kadhafi nationalised the former Mobil terminal as part of his “people’s revolution.”

Libya is the fourth biggest oil exporter in Africa after Nigeria, Algeria and Angola, producing around 1.8 million barrels a day, with reserves of 42 billion barrels.

Ras Lanuf plays a major part as its oil refinery produces 220,000 barrels a day.

Ras Lanuf town’s smart blocks of flats look more like those in a European resort, and it boasts a modern hospital -- where ambulances bring a stream of insurgents who have been wounded in a push by Kadhafi’s forces.

Heavy casualties show that the strategic importance of the giant oil tanks on the desert coast is clear to the opposition and Kadhafi’s forces alike.

The rebels scan the arid horizon and twice in 10 minutes fired at government warplanes, shouting “Victory or death” and “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

“It is important for them and we have to hold it. He keeps sending planes and helicopters and we shoot at them,” said Zachariah, the commander of the rebel battery at the terminal.

“Yesterday near here they shot down a Sukhoi,” added Zachariah, who in civilian life is a driver from the Libya’s second city Benghazi, the rebel headquarters some 300 kilometres away.

The rebels dream of a time when they control the country’s oil themselves, should they topple Kadhafi after 41 years in power -- although Zachariah’s plans appeared as vague as the parallel rebel government’s.

“In several of his speeches Kadhafi said that the oil is for him and his children. After they get rid of the Kadhafis then they will see how it is going to go afterwards,” he said.

The fighters flashed victory signs and cheered at the dozens of cars and pick-up trucks racing along the desert road in a desperate bid to repel Kadhafi’s forces as they threatened to wipe out the opposition gains.

Abdul Aziz al-Ghazaly, a portly, middle-aged rebel wearing a military jacket and sunglasses, said he did not mind missing the action at the front because he had found his calling.

“It is our role to guard this and other important places while other young people are going to Tripoli,” he said.

But Medan, the engineer, said the West, with its thirst for oil from countries like Libya, owes it to the rebels to set up a no-fly zone to stop Kadhafi’s jets trying to rain death from the skies.

“The reaction is terrible from the west. They talk about a military option but all we want is a no-fly zone, the rest we can do ourselves,” he said.

source:http://www.livemint.com/2011/03/07085102/Libya-rebels-defend-oil-port.html

Obama to discuss Libya sanctions with France,Britian

Washington: President Barack Obama will Thursday discuss punitive measures against Libya, including sanctions, with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the White House said.

“They will be discussing Libya and they will be discussing different options that we can take,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, saying the calls were due to take place later in the day.

“I am sure, broadly speaking, our options will be discussed,” he said, though he declined to detail exact steps Washington wanted to see taken, amid calls for sanctions and the establishment of a “no fly” zone over Libya.

“I am not ruling anything out,” Carney said, though acknowledged “sanctions are something we are looking at.”

“Exploring the options means just that,” Carney said, when asked whether the Pentagon was laying plans to enforce a “no fly zone” to protect civilians in Libya.

source:http://www.livemint.com/2011/02/25003205/Obama-to-discuss-Libya-sanctio.html