Libya forces retreat after air raids Pro-Gaddafi troops fall back from rebel stronghold as international forces ratchet up campaign to ensure no-fly zone. Last Modified: 21 Mar 2011 15:16 Rebel forces retreated from around Ajdabiya after they came under fire from Gaddafi's forces [Reuters]
Libyan government forces have fallen back from the rebel-held city of Benghazi, following air raids by Western-led forces, while cracks emerged among the coalition policing the UN-sanctioned no-fly zone. Rebel fighters on Monday tried to follow up the retreat by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, advancing from positions some five to 10km from Ajdabiya. But they retreated in disarray when they came under heavy fire from Gaddafi forces in Ajdabiya. An AFP photographer reported three people dead or badly wounded, and vehicles damaged by shell fire. Plumes of smoke were seen in the distance, including one that seemed to be inside the town. Coalition jets continued to patrol the UN-sanctioned no-fly zone over Libya, but launched no new attacks after air raids over the weekend scattered Gaddafi's forces. A cruise missile attack hit a three-story building in Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli late on Sunday, the first reported attack on the Libyan leader's military control centre. Libyan authorities invited journalists to visit the site of the attack early on Monday morning. Mussa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Gaddafi, called the attack a "barbaric bombing" but said no one had been hurt. He declined to say whether Gaddafi himself was inside the compound, the same site that was bombed by the US in 1986. Coalition divisions The recent events have crystallised divisions among the Western coalition powers carrying out the UN-sanctioned military action in Libya and some world powers. William Hague, the British foreign minister, refused to rule out using the coalition air raids to target Gaddafi, saying it depended on "circumstances at the time". But Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said such action would be "unwise" and Laurent Teisseire, the French defence ministry spokesman, said "the answer is no," when asked about the subject. Later British General Sir David Richards, the head of Britain's armed forces, said that Gaddafi was "absolutely not" a target for military action. Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, criticised the UN resolution that sanctioned the use of force in Libya, calling it a "medieval call to crusade". "The resolution by the Security Council, of course, is defective and flawed," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling workers on a visit to a missile factory. "To me, it resembles some sort of medieval call to crusade when someone would appeal to someone to go to a certain place and free someone else." The UN resolution was passed after Russia, which has a veto, abstained during the Security Council vote. Sanctions supported Elsewhere, Amr Moussa, the Arab League chief, questioned the need for a bombardment of positions in Libya by coalition forces, saying they risked killing civilians. US Navy Vice Admiral William Gortney, the staff director for the joint chiefs of staff, said at a Pentagon news conference there is no evidence civilians in Libya have been harmed in the air assault. Moussa said later that the Arab League respected the UN resolution calling for military action in Libya. "The Arab League position on Libya was decisive and from the first moment we froze membership of Libya ... Then we asked the United Nations to implement a no-fly zone," he told a news conference with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general. Guido Westerwelle, Germany's foreign minster, speaking in Brussels, defended his country's decision not to back air raids against Gaddafi's forces. He said that the Arab League criticism of the air attacks had vindicated Germany's reluctance to back the action, but Germany stood with other European Union countries in tightening sanctions against the Libyan government. Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee, reporting from Brussels, said: "There's lots of cracks just developing, some of them inside the European Union and some of them outside. "The comments by Vladimir Putin, for example - who is prime minister, remember, he's not the president so he's supposed to be in charge of domestic, not foreign policy ... demonstrate how this campaign in Libya is driving wedges between people who are supposed to be allies nowadays." In a meeting called by China, the UN Security Council is to discuss the situation in Libya on Monday, in response to a letter from Libya and a Russian request, according to a diplomatic source. Source: Al Jazeera and agencies ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: proletar-dig...@yahoogroups.com proletar-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: proletar-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
