Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
TRIPOLI, Libya NATO military commanders conceded Tuesday they are unable to stop Moammar Gadhafi's shelling of the rebel-held city of Misrata, where hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties, while Britain said it will dispatch senior military officers to advise the opposition.
Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, has been under siege for nearly two months, with rebels holding on to seaside positions in the port area. In recent days, Libyan troops have pounded the city with shells and rockets.
Rebels and troops clashed Tuesday in central Misrata, and explosions and gunfire were heard. NATO strikes only targeted radars and air defenses, said Abdel-Salam, a resident who identified himself only by his given name for fear of retaliation. Hospitals are filled with the wounded, and 120 patients need to be evacuated, the World Health Organization said.
A United Nations' humanitarian agency was cool to an idea by the European Union to deploy an armed force to escort humanitarian aid in Libya, saying it was still able to use civilian assets on the ground. The proposal also drew a warning from Gadhafi's regime that this would be tantamount to a military operation.
The fighting in Libya has been deadlocked for the past month. Gadhafi is holding on in the west, while the rebels control the east. NATO airstrikes have kept Gadhafi loyalists in check, but the rebels, poorly trained with little military experience, have not been able to score military gains, either.
As the allies seek to break the battlefield stalemate, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain will send a team of up to 20 senior military advisers to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to help organize the haphazard opposition forces.
Hague said advisers would not supply weapons to the rebels or assist in their attacks on Gadhafi's forces but would work with British diplomats already cooperating with the National Transitional Council, the political wing of the rebel movement, which has been officially recognized by Italy, France and Qatar.
Britain has said it would not become involved in directly supplying weapons to Libya's rebels; it has already sent non-lethal support, such as 1,000 sets of body armor and 100 satellite phones.
The move seems to have been spurred by the continued deadlock after two months of fighting between Gadhafi's army and rebel forces. There has also been growing international concern over Misrata, where NATO has been unable to halt heavy shelling by Gadhafi's forces with airstrikes alone.
(Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer said air strikes had hobbled Libyan forces but the conflict was moving into "stalemate" as Muammar Gaddafi's troops pressed on with their punishing siege of rebel Misrata.
Rebels welcomed U.S. plans to deploy unmanned aircraft, typically operated remotely from the United States. But it emerged that bad weather had forced the first two drones sent to Libya to turn back.
"It's certainly moving toward a stalemate," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's joint chiefs of staff, addressing U.S. troops during a visit to Baghdad.
"At the same time we've attrited somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of his main ground forces, his ground force capabilities. Those will continue to go away over time."
In Misrata, the only rebel-held major city in western Libya, rebels wrested control of a large downtown office building which had been a base for Gaddafi's snipers and other troops, after a furious two-week-long battle.
Shattered masonry, wrecked tanks and the incinerated corpse of a government soldier lay near the former insurance offices on Friday amid buildings pockmarked by gunfire.
BENGHAZI, Libya U.S. Sen. John McCain, one of the strongest proponents in Congress of the American military intervention in Libya, said Friday that Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi's troops are his heroes.
The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee made the remark after arriving in Benghazi, a city that has been the opposition capital in the rebel-held eastern Libya.
McCain said he was in Benghazi "to get an on the ground assessment of the situation" and planned to meet with the rebel National Transition Council, the de-facto government in the eastern half of the country, and members of the rebel military.
"They are my heroes," McCain said of the rebels as he walked out of a local hotel in Benghazi. He was traveling in an armored Mercedes jeep and had a security detail. A few Libyans waved American flags as his vehicle drove past.
McCain's visit is the highest yet by an American official to the rebel-held east and a boost to the anti-Gadhafi forces. Details of the trip were shrouded in secrecy due to heightened security in a country fiercely divided by the two-month-old anti-Gadhafi rebellion.
McCain's trip comes as Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Thursday that President Barack Obama has authorized armed Predator drones against forces loyal to Gadhafi. It is the first time that drones will be used for airstrikes since the United States turned over control of the operation to NATO on April 4.
The rebels have complained that NATO airstrikes since then have largely been ineffective in stopping Gadhafi forces.
Invoking the humanitarian disasters in Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990s, McCain pressed for U.S. military intervention in Libya in February, weeks before the U.N. Security Council authorized military action to protect civilians and impose a no-fly zone.
When Obama acted with limited congressional consultation, McCain who was the 2008 Republican presidential contender running against Obama defended the president, saying he couldn't wait for Congress to take even a few days to debate the use of force. If he had, "there would have been nothing left to save in Benghazi," the rebels' de-facto capital.
Derna, Libya
Clad in combat fatigues, Abdel Karim Hasadi relaxes in the lobby of Dernas opulent Pearl Hotel. The devout Muslim schoolteacher-turned-rebel commander is at ease with his emerging status as the leading figure in a city with a long and important history of Islamic piety.
Qaddafi claims Al Qaeda could overrun Libya. Could it? Arab revolutions will boost Al Qaeda, says radical US cleric Awlaki Qaddafi's credibility gap NATO commander: It is 'premature' to talk of Libya exit strategy But the rise of men like him is making Western officials uncomfortable. NATO Adm. James Stavridis warned last month of flickers of Al Qaeda in the uprising against Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, and a 2008 US diplomatic cable called the city of Derna a wellspring for anti-American fighters in Iraq.
Indeed, a strong current of Islamic fundamentalism runs through this Mediterranean city in Libyas rebel-held east; many of its young men did go to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight US troops. And while Derna has a population of only 100,000, its influence extends throughout the country, giving the West pause about whether a post-Qaddafi Libya could be colored by Islamist fundamentalism.
But many Libyans say this holy city will pose a threat only if Qaddafi is able to once again brutally suppress this uprising the way he did a smaller one in the late 1990s.
Mr. Hasadi dismisses the idea that Al Qaeda will somehow take root amid the Libyan unrest.
I thought badly of the US before, thats true, says Hasadi. But thats changing now theyre standing with us against Qaddafi.
He says jitters about pious fighters from Derna seeking to impose on Libya the harsh brand of Islamist rule favored by Al Qaeda just play into Qaddafis hands.
Qaddafi likes to try to make us out to be Al Qaeda, to discredit us, says Hasadi. What do I want? Three basic rights: a constitution, freedom, justice. No more one-man rule. Is that what Al Qaeda wants? Really, having a beard and being a Muslim doesnt make you Al Qaeda.
Extremists or not?
For the Libyan revolutions rank and file, Islam is a central cultural fact of life. Fighters call themselves holy warriors and expect their reward to be heaven if they fall while fighting to oust Qaddafi. They also generally agree, when asked, that a future Libyan constitution should not violate stipulations of Islamic law.
But that doesnt make them extremists, locals point out. In fact, it places them firmly in the mainstream of Libya and many other Arab countries.
Many in Libya do worry about Islamist militancy but only if Qaddafi wins, not if he loses.
If Qaddafi holds power and stamps out all legitimate political opposition, then many of the young might find Al Qaeda or things like that attractive, says Abdel Kader Kadura, a law professor at Garyounis University in the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi. They will feel they have no choice, [other than] turning to that or giving up.
TRIPOLI (Reuters) NATO forces flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound early on Monday, in what a press official from Gaddafi's government said was an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.
Firefighters were still working to extinguish flames in part of the ruined building a few hours after the attack, when foreign journalists were brought to the scene in Tripoli.
The press official, who asked not to be identified, said 45 people were hurt in the strike, 15 of them seriously, and some were still missing. That could not be independently confirmed.
Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said the Libyan government would not be cowed by such attacks.
"The bombing which targeted Muammar Gaddafi's office today... will only scare children. It's impossible that it will make us afraid or give up or raise the white flag," he was quoted as saying by the Jana state news agency.
"You, NATO, are waging a losing battle because you are backed by traitors and spies. History has proved that no state can rely on them to win."
Gaddafi's compound has been hit before, but NATO forces appear to have stepped up the pace of strikes in Tripoli in recent days. A target nearby, which the government called a car park but which appeared to cover a bunker, was hit two days ago.
The United States, Britain and France say they will not stop their air campaign over Libya until Gaddafi leaves power.
Washington has taken a backseat role in the air war since turning over command to NATO at the end of March but is under pressure to do more. Last week it sent Predator drone aircraft, which fired for the first time on Saturday.
Reporting from Benghazi, Libya The money's running out, the fuel stocks are depleted, the oil has largely stopped flowing and most other financial activity has ceased. But the official running the economy of the rebel-held swaths of Libya says he's not overly worried.
"A ship's on the way," Ali Tarhouni said Tuesday, citing the anticipated arrival of a fuel tanker with stocks for the main power plant in the de facto rebel capital, Benghazi. "That's why I woke up dancing this morning."
Almost three months after rebels expelled the forces of Moammar Kadafi, life goes on in "liberated" Libya with a state of mind that might be described as precarious elation.
The rebel-held zones are going broke, but there's no outward sense of panic, or regret. Here in eastern Libya, no one seems to pine for the more than 40-year reign of Brother Leader.
The scene, if anything, is the opposite of the anarchic tableau of looting, power outages and armed conflict that followed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Cafes bustle with the caffeinated chatter of devotees of the frothy cappuccino that is a blessed legacy of 20th century Italian colonization. Kalashnikov rifles are the de rigueur male accessory, but the incessant gunfire is mostly celebratory.
The rebel tricolor and revolutionary trinkets emblazoned with the crescent moon and star sell briskly at sidewalk stands. Rush-hour streets are jammed with gridlocked traffic, but they lurch forward on subsidized, nostalgia-invoking gas prices of 40 cents a gallon.
Schools remain closed, many businesses are still shuttered and most people are out of work.
However, keen to fend off social unrest, the self-appointed government nominally running things is doling out salaries and stipends while working with volunteers and aid agencies to distribute food, medicine and other necessities from both foreign and domestic donors. And to date, power outages have been scattered and brief.
The shadow government even took the audacious step of declaring that, until Kadafi steps down, the national central bank and oil company would henceforth be based in Benghazi, not in the capital, Tripoli, Kadafi's stronghold and the country's most populous region.
But beneath the veneer of normalcy is a nation, or a rump nation, verging on economic collapse.
Available funds are sufficient only to keep the rebel zone afloat for three or four weeks "at the most," Tarhouni, the rebel finance minister, told reporters here Tuesday. Asked how much it costs to run things, he gave a vague daily range of 50 million to 100 million dinars about $42 million to $84 million.
"It's a very hard question to answer," said Tarhouni, an economics professor at the University of Washington who returned after more than three decades in exile, one of dozens of Western-educated exiled technocrats who have returned to help the opposition cause. "It's the magnitude of the needs, and some of it is unknown, that makes answering that question very hard."
Opposition leaders are determined to transform what was a largely socialist economy into a free-market model. But there's no credit, imports and exports are stalled, and bank withdrawals have been limited to prevent a currency run. Few people are depositing cash in banks, feeding what economists call a "liquidity" crisis.
The imminent arrival of a tanker from Europe with fuel should avert the imposition of Baghdad-style blackouts, officials say. Still, Libya's wealth is oil, and crude is barely flowing from the nation's fields, some of which the rebels control.
Reporting from Tripoli, Libya, and Baghdad Prosecutors asked judges of the International Criminal Court on Monday to issue arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, his son and brother-in-law, further isolating the autocratic ruler who has proved hard to dislodge despite NATO airstrikes and popular uprisings.
A legal brief presented to the judges accused the three of crimes against humanity in the killing of civilians as an effort to crush demonstrations they feared would unseat them, as happened with longtime rulers in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia.
The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, argued that Kadafi planned to answer his critics with violence even before the first antigovernment crowds gathered in Libya in mid-February. Ocampo charted a timeline for Kadafi's actions and sketched out a division of responsibility among the Libyan ruler, his son Seif Islam and his brother-in-law Abdullah Sanoussi.
Judges at the court, based in The Hague, will take at least three weeks before ruling on the request, Moreno-Ocampo said in an interview. But his move was certain to please officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is conducting a bombing campaign under a United Nations mandate to protect Libyan civilians. Over the weekend, a senior British military official warned that Kadafi might be able to hold on if NATO did not escalate the airstrikes.
"NATO doubtless will appreciate the ICC investigation and indictment of top Libyan leaders, including Kadafi," said David Scheffer, a former Clinton administration ambassador at large for war crimes issues, who now teaches international law at Northwestern University.
Scheffer said the move might increase pressure on Kadafi to think about finding refuge in a country that has not agreed to ICC jurisdiction.
The Obama administration has reportedly explored which countries not party to the ICC might harbor Kadafi. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, now on trial at The Hague for war crimes, fled to Nigeria, helping end his country's civil war before he was eventually detained and sent to the court.
Some human rights groups have questioned why the court has not also opened an investigation of Syria's government, which has likewise cracked down on a protest movement.
Moreno-Ocampo called the evidence against Kadafi overwhelming and added that his investigation had been authorized by a U.N. Security Council resolution.
"People who are against the regime are suffering persecution today. That's the reality," Moreno-Ocampo said. "The way to protect civilians today is to have these [arrest] warrants."
TRIPOLI, Libya Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi shelled villages and towns to try to take control of the high ground in a western mountain range, while a U.N. official appealed for global assistance for some 2 million people displaced by fighting between Gadhafi's forces and rebels trying to oust him.
The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Libya said some 1.6 million people inside the North African country need aid because fighting has disrupted basic services and depleted food and medical stocks.
Coordinator Panos Moumtzis, who is based in Geneva, an additional 500,000 who have crossed borders to Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the region also need humanitarian assistance.
Moumtzis said he was asking international donors for $408 million to fund aid for Libya through September.
Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya for more than 40 years, has been using his military and militias to try to put down an uprising that began in February to try to remove him from power.
Also Wednesday, the International Criminal Court prosecutors warned Libyan officials they will be prosecuted if they attempt to cover up crimes by forces loyal to Gadhafi.
Prosecutors issued the warning in a letter to Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati al-Obeidi.
The letter also formally informed him of Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's request for arrest warrants for Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi. The judges will now have to decide whether to issue arrest warrants.
Moreno-Ocampo on Monday accused the three Monday of murder and persecution for allegedly ordering, planning and participating in attacks on civilians.
TUNIS/TRIPOLI, May 19 (Reuters) - The wife and daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi crossed the border into Tunisia, a Tunisian security source said, but it was unclear whether they were on a diplomatic mission or seeking safe haven.
Arabic television stations quoted Tunisian officials as denying that the family members were in the country, saying that Safia Gaddafi and her daughter Aisha were on a U.N. sanctions list and would therefore not be allowed in.
However, the security source said the two women came to Tunisia with a Libyan delegation on May 14 and have been staying on the southern island of Djerba near the Libyan border.
It did not appear that they were travelling with Shokri Ghanem, Libya's top oil official, who is believed to have also crossed into Tunisia several days ago and defected.
WASHINGTON/TRIPOLI, May 20 (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi will inevitably leave power, U.S. President Barack Obama said, as NATO intensified its weeks-long bombing of government targets and said on Friday it had sunk eight Libyan warships.
Obama was speaking in an address on the Middle East where a series of uprisings this year governments in Tunisia and Egypt, and inspired a three-month-old revolt in Libya that aims to overthrow Gaddafi.
"Time is working against Gaddafi. He does not have control over his country. The opposition has organised a legitimate and credible Interim Council," Obama said in Washington on Thursday.
"When Gaddafi inevitably leaves or is forced from power, decades of provocation will come to an end and the transition to a democratic Libya can proceed," he said, defending his decision to take military action against the Libyan leader's government.
His comments echoed NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen who said military and political pressure were weakening Gaddafi and would eventually topple him.
The Libyan leader remained defiant.
"Obama is still delusional," Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said. "He believes the lies that his own government and media spread around the world ... It's not Obama who decides whether Muammar Gaddafi leaves Libya or not. It's the Libyan people."
Acting under a U.N. mandate, NATO allies including France, Britain and the United States are conducting air strikes that aim to stop Gaddafi using military force against civilians.
NATO aircraft sank the eight warships in overnight attacks on the ports of Tripoli, Al Khums and Sirte, the alliance said in a statement.
"Given the escalating use of naval assets, NATO had no choice but to take decisive action to protect the civilian population of Libya and NATO forces at sea," said Rear-Admiral Russell Harding, deputy commander of NATO's Libyan mission.
Libyan officials took journalists to Tripoli port where a small ship spewed smoke and flames, and cast doubt on whether boats targeted by NATO had been involved in fighting.
Mohammad Ahmad Rashed, general manager of Tripoli's port, said six boats had been hit by missiles.
The boats, five belonging to the coastguard and a larger naval vessel, had been undergoing maintenance since before the start of the fighting, he told reporters, adding that the port was still functional and capable of handling commercial traffic.
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has contacted foreign states offering an immediate ceasefire, but there was skepticism that the proposal could end the three-month-old conflict.
The ceasefire offer was unlikely to deflect Western leaders, meeting for a Group of Eight summit in the French seaside resort of Deauville, who say they are steadily moving closer to their goal of forcing Gaddafi from power.
Spain said it was one of several European governments to have received a proposal from Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi for an immediate ceasefire.
"We've received the message and our position lies with the rest of Europe," a spokesman for the Spanish prime minister's office said.
"Everyone is anxious for there to be an agreement ... but certain steps have to be taken first and so far they haven't been taken," he said.
Foreign reporters in Tripoli were summoned to a news conference given by the Libyan prime minister, though there was no word on what he would be talking about.
Gaddafi's government has offered ceasefires before. Each time, these have been rejected by rebels who say they will accept nothing short of the Libyan leader's departure.
MISRATA MORTAR ATTACK
Despite the latest ceasefire offer, forces loyal to Gaddafi were on Thursday mounting their most intensive bombardment for days in the rebel-held city of Misrata.
A Reuters reporter in the city, which is about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, said he could hear mortars landing every few minutes in the western outskirts of Misrata.
He said there was a steady flow of ambulances going to and from the front line.
"The bombing started at about 7 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT). Today's mortar fire is quite fierce and sustained. The mortars are coming closer to the front line than they have for several days," said Abdellatif Sueihy, a 56-year-old rebel fighter.
Gaddafi's security forces cracked down ferociously when thousands of Libyans rebelled against his rule. NATO missiles and warplanes have been bombing targets in Libya for two months under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians from attack.
Rebels now control the east of the country, around their main stronghold of Benghazi, and pockets of land in the West.
But the conflict has reached stalemate on the ground, with the rebels unable to advance toward Tripoli and NATO powers -- wary of getting sucked into new conflicts after their experience in Iraq and Afghanistan -- refusing to put troops on the ground.
(Reuters) - Russia believes Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi should quit and could help broker his departure, a senior Russian official said on Friday in an important boost to NATO powers bent on ending his 41-year rule.
It was a striking change in tone from Kremlin criticism of Western air strikes in Libya officially intended to protect civilians in a civil war but effectively taking the side of rebels seeking Gaddafi's removal and democratic change.
NATO said it was preparing to deploy attack helicopters over the Arab North African state for the first time to add to the pressure on Gaddafi's forces on the ground.
But his security forces demonstrated once again that they are far from a spent force, launching rocket attacks overnight on the rebel-held town of Zintan and fighting insurgents on the outskirts of the city of Misrata.
The Russian mediation offer was announced on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France, where Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was among the heads of state in attendance.
"Colonel Gaddafi has deprived himself of legitimacy with his actions. We should help him leave," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in Deauville.
TRIPOLI (Reuters) Muammar Gaddafi is emphatic he will not leave Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday after talks with the Libyan leader that left prospects for a negotiated end to the conflict looking dim.
But new questions emerged over how long Gaddafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gaddafi amounted to a "time bomb."
Within hours of Zuma's departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital.
Zuma was in Tripoli to try to revive an African "roadmap" for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gaddafi and has since turned into a war with thousands of people killed.
The talks produced no breakthrough, with Gaddafi's refusal to quit -- a condition the rebels and NATO have set as a pre-condition for any ceasefire -- still the sticking point.
"Col. Gaddafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue," Zuma's office said in a statement. "He emphasized that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties."
Zuma also said Gaddafi's personal safety "is a concern" -- a reference to NATO strikes which have repeatedly hit the Libyan leader's Bab al-Aziziyah compound and other locations used by the Libyan leader and his family.
Now in its fourth month, Libya's conflict is deadlocked on the ground, with anti-Gaddafi rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance toward Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears to be firmly entrenched.
Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.
Western powers have said they expect Gaddafi will be forced out by a process of attrition as air strikes, defections from his entourage and shortages take their toll.
Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, told Reuters in Tripoli that some food stocks in areas under Gaddafi's control were likely to last only weeks.
"I don't think there's any famine, malnutrition. But the longer the conflict lasts the more the food stocks supplies are going to be depleted, and it's a matter of weeks before the country reaches a critical situation," Moumtzis said in an interview.
"The food and the medical supplies is a little bit like a time bomb. At the moment it's under control and it's ok. But if this goes on for quite some time, this will become a major issue," he said.
Muammar Gaddafi: I Will Not Leave Libya
TRIPOLI (Reuters) Muammar Gaddafi is emphatic he will not leave Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday after talks with the Libyan leader that left prospects for a negotiated end to the conflict looking dim.
But new questions emerged over how long Gaddafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gaddafi amounted to a "time bomb."
Within hours of Zuma's departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital.
Zuma was in Tripoli to try to revive an African "roadmap" for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gaddafi and has since turned into a war with thousands of people killed.
The talks produced no breakthrough, with Gaddafi's refusal to quit -- a condition the rebels and NATO have set as a pre-condition for any ceasefire -- still the sticking point.
"Col. Gaddafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue," Zuma's office said in a statement. "He emphasized that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties."
Zuma also said Gaddafi's personal safety "is a concern" -- a reference to NATO strikes which have repeatedly hit the Libyan leader's Bab al-Aziziyah compound and other locations used by the Libyan leader and his family.
Now in its fourth month, Libya's conflict is deadlocked on the ground, with anti-Gaddafi rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance toward Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears to be firmly entrenched.
Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.
Western powers have said they expect Gaddafi will be forced out by a process of attrition as air strikes, defections from his entourage and shortages take their toll.
Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, told Reuters in Tripoli that some food stocks in areas under Gaddafi's control were likely to last only weeks.
"I don't think there's any famine, malnutrition. But the longer the conflict lasts the more the food stocks supplies are going to be depleted, and it's a matter of weeks before the country reaches a critical situation," Moumtzis said in an interview.
"The food and the medical supplies is a little bit like a time bomb. At the moment it's under control and it's ok. But if this goes on for quite some time, this will become a major issue," he said.
Muammar Gaddafi: I Will Not Leave Libya
Muammar Gaddafi: I Will Not Leave Libya
TRIPOLI (Reuters) Muammar Gaddafi is emphatic he will not leave Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday after talks with the Libyan leader that left prospects for a negotiated end to the conflict looking dim.
But new questions emerged over how long Gaddafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gaddafi amounted to a "time bomb."
Within hours of Zuma's departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital.
Zuma was in Tripoli to try to revive an African "roadmap" for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gaddafi and has since turned into a war with thousands of people killed.
The talks produced no breakthrough, with Gaddafi's refusal to quit -- a condition the rebels and NATO have set as a pre-condition for any ceasefire -- still the sticking point.
"Col. Gaddafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue," Zuma's office said in a statement. "He emphasized that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties."
Zuma also said Gaddafi's personal safety "is a concern" -- a reference to NATO strikes which have repeatedly hit the Libyan leader's Bab al-Aziziyah compound and other locations used by the Libyan leader and his family.
Now in its fourth month, Libya's conflict is deadlocked on the ground, with anti-Gaddafi rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance toward Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears to be firmly entrenched.
Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.
Western powers have said they expect Gaddafi will be forced out by a process of attrition as air strikes, defections from his entourage and shortages take their toll.
Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, told Reuters in Tripoli that some food stocks in areas under Gaddafi's control were likely to last only weeks.
"I don't think there's any famine, malnutrition. But the longer the conflict lasts the more the food stocks supplies are going to be depleted, and it's a matter of weeks before the country reaches a critical situation," Moumtzis said in an interview.
"The food and the medical supplies is a little bit like a time bomb. At the moment it's under control and it's ok. But if this goes on for quite some time, this will become a major issue," he said.
Muammar Gaddafi: I Will Not Leave Libya
Starving out the local population os hardly a satisfactory solution.
Why not be done with it and send in the SEALs?
(Reuters) - An explosion in rebel-held Benghazi may be a harbinger of the kind of unrest Libya could face in the event of Muammar Gaddafi's ousting as diehard loyalists seek to stifle revolutionary rule at birth.
The blast on Wednesday damaged a hotel used by rebels and foreigners in Benghazi, wounding one person, and rebel authorities said they believed the explosion might be linked to Gaddafi agents still operating in the east.
Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council, said the explosion outside Tibesti hotel was believed to have been caused by a hand grenade thrown in a "desperate attempt" by Gaddafi loyalists to sow terror.
More such attacks are likely if Gaddafi is toppled, analysts say, because the abundance of weaponry in a time of war would make them relatively easy for Gaddafi hardliners to stage.
Tunisia's revolution was followed by repeated disturbances blamed on supporters of ousted Tunisia ruler Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. Iraq is another example of the chaos that can follow a dictator's departure -- violence continued for years after Saddam Hussein was overthrown by the 2003 U.S-led invasion.
Analysts say two factors will be important in minimizing the likelihood of unrest: the speed with which security forces seen as legitimate are deployed to keep order, and the degree to which the new rulers are prepared to offer reconciliation to those who held positions of responsibility under Gaddafi.
"HOTHEADS" MAY ATTEMPT SABOTAGE
Rebel official Guma el-Gamaty said similar acts of violence could occur for a few weeks after the removal of Gaddafi, adding these were more likely in the capital Tripoli than in the rebel bastion of Benghazi, but precise predictions were impossible.
"It's possible it could go on for a few weeks, but it's hard to call. There might be hotheads, ideologues, sleeper cells who might to try to sabotage the new situation," he told Reuters. "A lot will depend on how quickly the police and security forces are recalled to service and deployed."
Now in its fourth month, the Libyan conflict is deadlocked, with rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance toward Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears firmly entrenched.
But Western governments say they believe they are gradually wearing down Gaddafi's ability to control the country, through a combination of diplomatic pressure and military action.
Gamaty said a post-Gaddafi government would not "make the mistake" of U.S. administrators in post-invasion Baghdad who disbanded the national army, a move widely believed to have swelled the ranks of insurgents who plunged Iraq into chaos.
"We will try to make the changeover as quickly as possible, and be as inclusive as possible. We already have a network in Tripoli of hundreds of activists who will create a local council in the aftermath of Gaddafi's departure," he said.
Gamaty said he expected that "a few hundred" people with blood on their hands would seek to flee, but others would be welcome to stay and build a new government.
Alex Warren, a director of FrontierMEA, a Middle East and North Africa research firm, said that any violence against the new government would not be as organised as the Iraq insurgency.
BENGHAZI A U.N. official says a Libyan woman who claims she was gang-raped by Moammar Gadhafi's troops has been deported from Qatar, where she sought refuge.
Sybella Wilkes, spokeswoman for the United Nations' refugee organization, says Iman al-Obeidi is now in Benghazi.
Wilkes said Thursday that al-Obeidi was a recognized refugee and that there wasn't any "good reason" why she was deported from Doha, where she sought refuge last month.
Al-Obeidi made headlines in March when she rushed distraught into Tripoli's Rixos Hotel, seeking to speak to foreign reporters.
She claimed she was detained by a number of Gadhafi troops at a Tripoli checkpoint and raped.
As she told her story, al-Obeidi was tackled by government minders and dragged from the hotel.
TRIPOLI, Libya Following a series of NATO airstrikes, rebel forces retook the western mountain town of Yafran on Monday, breaking a month-long siege by forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, news agencies reported.
The western mountain region is the home territory for Libyas minority Berbers, who have chafed under the rule of Colonel Qaddafi and rose up against his forces when the uprising began. In recent months, loyalist forces have besieged several cities in the region, including the largest, Zintan, which rebel forces said was coming under attack on Monday, Reuters said.
NATO planes and attack helicopters battered targets around Tripoli early Monday and the oil port of Brega on Sunday, in an intensifying effort to break a stalemate in a conflict that is already in its fourth month, and in the third month of NATO airstrikes.
In Brussels, the secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Monday that he intended to use the occasion of a ministerial meeting on Wednesday to ask more member countries to contribute to the offensive against the Qaddafi regime, The Associated Press reported.
Obviously, some of those allies and partners carrying the heavy burden start to ask whether it would be possible to broaden the participation a bit, Mr. Rasmussen said at a news briefing. That is a point I will focus on at the defense ministers meeting.
But Britains foreign secretary, William Hague, returning Sunday from a brief visit to the rebel headquarters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, hinted at concern in Western capitals about what might come after the toppling of Colonel Qaddafi. Mr. Hague said he had pressed the rebel leaders to make early progress on a more detailed plan for a post-Qaddafi government that would include sharing power with some of Colonel Qaddafis loyalists.
In particular, Mr. Hague said, the rebels should learn from Iraqs experience, in which a mass purge of former Saddam Hussein loyalists occurred under the American-backed program of de-Baathification, and shun any similar undertaking. The reference was to a policy that many analysts believe helped to propel years of insurgency in Iraq by stripping tens of thousands of officials of jobs.
According to news agency reports, crowds in Benghazis streets greeted Mr. Hague and Britains overseas aid minister, Andrew Mitchell, with shouts of Libya free! and Qaddafi, go away! as they met with leaders of the rebels Transitional National Council, headed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, who was justice minister in Colonel Qaddafis government until the rebellion began in February. In London, Mr. Hague described the rebel leaders as genuine believers in democracy and the rule of law, but said that they should make more detailed post-Qaddafi plans.
He said Britain was encouraging them to put more flesh on their proposed transition to lay out in more detail this coming week what would happen on the day that Qaddafi went, who would be running what, how would a new government be formed in Tripoli? Pressing the point about Qaddafi loyalists, he said the Benghazi leaders were learning from Iraq. No de-Baathification! he said, before adding, They now need to publicize that more effectively, to be able to convince members of the current regime that that is something that would work.
Mr. Hagues remarks, and others by the American defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, in Afghanistan on Sunday, pointed to complementary concerns among Western governments backing the Libyan rebellion, especially the United States, Britain and France. Those countries are providing the bulk of the aircraft and missiles for the NATO airstrikes, now at an average of nearly 50 a day.
One concern is that the campaign could drag on, exhausting fragile levels of political and popular support, including among restive lawmakers in Washington, London and Paris. The other derives from a possible contradictory outcome, in which the conflict ends abruptly, perhaps with the collapse of Colonel Qaddafis forces around Tripoli or his death.
That, some Western officials say, could expose the anti-Qaddafi forces as deeply riven by personal and political rivalries, unready for government and perhaps vulnerable to a fractious scramble for Colonel Qaddafis inheritance.
That would make the Western powers support for the rebels much riskier with no way of knowing whether a future government would be any more democratic, respectful of human rights and amenable to a pro-Western policy than the quixotic Colonel Qaddafi, who has run Libya for 42 years.
Dealing with the first of these possible outcomes, Mr. Hague said in a BBC interview that it was impossible to foresee how long the anti-Qaddafi campaign might take. Were not going to set a deadline, he said, adding that it could be days or weeks or months.
A similar point was made in Afghanistan on Sunday by Mr. Gates, who told reporters that while it was only a matter of time before Colonel Qaddafi was deposed, I dont think anyone knows how long.
Mr. Gates also said there were increasing signs that Colonel Qaddafis grip on power was faltering, a view encouraged by a hastening roll call of high-level defectors, the weakening of the Qaddafi forces by the airstrikes, food and fuel shortages in Qaddafi-held cities, and scattered signs that Qaddafi opponents were becoming increasingly restive in some districts of Tripoli.
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) The young woman police officer swaggers through a crumbling Tripoli slum, her dark hair cut boyishly short, an empty gun holster and walkie-talkie hanging from her police belt. A tattooed man with a cigarette dangling from his lips shrinks away.
He doesn't want to mess with 25-year-old Nisrine Mansour.
A member of the regime's vice squad, her hero is Libyan ruler Moammar Gaddafi. His image is on her cell phone, his face emerging from rays of green the iconic regime color. Her ring tone is a tinny pro-Gadhafi chant.
Gaddafi has bestowed many titles upon himself during his 42-years of iron-fisted rule over Libya, branding himself "King of Kings" in Africa and "Brother Leader of the Revolution" in Libya.
Women like Mansour give him another title: emancipator of women.
"Moammar Gaddafi is the one who opened the opportunities for us to advance. That's why we cling to him, that's why we love him," says Mansour. "He gave us complete freedom as a woman to enter the police force, work as engineers, pilots, judges, lawyers. Anything."
Among Gaddafi's most ardent loyalists are a core of Libyan women who have risen to high-profile roles in the police, military and government and credit Gaddafi with giving them greater career avenues than many of their sisters elsewhere in the Arab world. They consider any threat to his regime a threat to their own advancement.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates Libya's main opposition group appealed Thursday for urgent infusions of cash from foreign nations to help support the rebellion against Moammar Gadhafi and said a meeting of countries backing NATO's military mission over the country would be a "total failure" if financial assistance was not forthcoming.
Italy promptly pledged nearly $600 million to the cause but the rebels were likely to be disappointed by the U.S. response announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said Washington would boost its humanitarian aid to all Libyans by $26.5 million and continue to look at ways to assist the opposition.
"Gadhafi's days are numbered," Clinton said. "We are working with our international partners through the U.N. to plan for the inevitable: a post-Gadhafi Libya."
As senior officials from the more than 30-member coalition met in the United Arab Emirates to prepare for the post-Gadhafi era in Libya, the opposition Transitional National Council lamented that the international community still did not understand the needs of the Libyan people after months of violence.
But opposition Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said outsiders have not matched verbal pledges of aid with enough money and urged nations to allow the council to use frozen Gadhafi regime assets as collateral for loans to help.
"Our people are dying," he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference in Abu Dhabi. "It's been almost four months now and nothing has materialized so far. Our message to our friends is that I hope that they walk the walk."
Italy said it would offer up to $600 million for "the day-to-day needs" of the council, encouraging other countries supporting NATO action against Gadhafi to provide similar financial support.
Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari said "timing was of the essence" and noted that the rebels "need help now."
The council has said it needs some $3 billion in funding to support itself for the next several months but has been appealing for diplomatic recognition and financial support with mixed results.
