Friday, April 01, 2011

NEAR BREGA/BENGHAZI, Libya: Rebels massed for a counter-attack against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces in eastern Libya Thursday, encouraged by the defection of the foreign minister and a former U.N. envoy.

About 1,000 people are believed to have been killed in clashes between supporters and opponents of Gadhafi since the uprising began on Feb. 17, the British government said Thursday.
The White House said the strongman’s inner circle was clearly crumbling with the loss of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who flew from Tunisia to England Wednesday.

A second senior Libyan official also announced he had quit Thursday in a statement posted on several opposition websites. Ali Abdel Salam al-Treki – Libya’s former envoy to the U.N. and also a former foreign minister – confirmed his defection.
Treki, announced his departure by saying “It is our nation’s right to live in freedom and democracy and enjoy a good life.”

Al-Jazeera television also said Thursday that “a number of figures” close to Gadhafi were leaving the country for the Tunisian capital.
Citing unidentified sources, Al-Jazeera said the group included the chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation, Shokri Ghanem. Earlier Thursday, Ghanem told Reuters he was in Libya.
Also named by Al-Jazeera were the speaker of Libya’s General People’s Congress, Mohamed Abdul-Qassem al-Zwai, foreign intelligence chief Abuzeid Dorda and Abdul-Ati al-Obaidi, a senior diplomat in charge of European affairs.

Gadhafi attempted to appear undaunted, accusing the leaders of the countries attacking his forces of being “affected by power madness.” “The solution for this problem is that they resign immediately and their peoples find alternatives to them,” the state news agency quoted him as saying.

His government’s forces appeared to have retaken some momentum on the rapidly moving front line of the battle, retaking the town of Brega after pushing the rebels miles back toward the territory they hold in eastern Libya.
The rebels said they were undaunted, taking heart from the departures in Gadhafi’s inner circle.
“We believe that the regime is crumbling from within,” opposition spokesman Mustafa Gheriani said in Benghazi, the rebels’ de facto capital.

Most high-level Libyan officials are trying to defect but are under tight security and having difficulty leaving the country, said Ibrahim Dabbashi, the deputy ambassador in Libya’s U.N. mission, which now backs the opposition.
“Koussa is one of the pillars of Gadhafi’s regime since the ‘70s,” said Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former Libyan Arab League representative who was among the first wave of diplomats to defect this month. “His defection means that he knew that the end of Gadhafi is coming and he wanted to jump from the sinking boat.”

Libyan officials, who initially denied Koussa’s defection, said he had resigned because he was sick with diabetes and high blood pressure. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Koussa was given permission to go to Tunisia, but the regime was surprised to learn he had flown to London.

“I talked to many people and this is not a happy piece of news, but people are saying, ‘So what? If someone wants to step down that’s his decision,”’ Ibrahim said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said if there was ever a sign that Gadhafi’s inner circle was collapsing, Koussa’s departure was it.

Koussa “can help provide critical intelligence about Gadhafi’s current state of mind and military plans,” said Tommy Vietor, U.S. National Security Council spokesman. He added that his defection “demonstrates that the people around Gadhafi understand his regime is in disarray.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Koussa’s decision to flee showed “the desperation and the fear right at the heart of the crumbling and rotten Gadhafi regime,” and called it a “serious blow to Gadhafi’s authority.”

Koussa was talking to British officials at a secret location. But pressure was growing for him to be questioned over the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in which 270 people were killed. Britain has refused to offer Koussa immunity from prosecution.
Koussa was the head of the Libyan Embassy in Britain between 1979 and 1980 and was expelled by London after statements vowing death for exiled Gadhafi opponents there. He returned to Tripoli to head the Libyan intelligence services.

In another blow to the regime, U.S. officials revealed Wednesday that the CIA has sent small teams of operatives into rebel-held eastern Libya while the White House debates whether to arm the opposition. The rebels said they knew nothing about Western troops in Libya and that too big a foreign role could be damaging. “It would undermine our credibility,” Gheriani said.

President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces, government officials told Reuters Wednesday. This is a necessary legal step before such action can take place but does not mean that it will. Obama’s order is likely to further alarm countries already concerned that air strikes on infrastructure and ground troops by the U.S., Britain and France go beyond a U.N. resolution with the stated aim only of protecting civilians.

“I can’t speak to any CIA activities but I will tell you that the president has been quite clear that in terms of the United States military there will be no boots on the ground,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
France, which Tuesday had indicated it was ready to discuss sending arms shipments to the insurgents, ruled out such a step Thursday, saying it is not compatible with the U.N. resolution on the conflict.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in London that arming the rebels could “create an environment which could be conducive to terrorism.” Gates said Gadhafi’s removal was “not part of the military mission.”
The top Vatican official in the Libyan capital cited witnesses saying at least 40 civilians had been killed in Western air strikes on Tripoli Thursday.

NATO said it was investigating but had no confirmation of the report. Libya’s state news agency, citing military sources, said Western air strikes had hit a civilian area in the capital overnight, but did not mention casualties.
Rebels said Gadhafi loyalists had killed 38 civilians over the past two days alone in Misrata, the only town in western Libya still under rebel control.

Britain said it was focusing air strikes around Misrata, which has been under siege from government forces for weeks.
Rebels had advanced overnight to the west gate of Brega, which has gone back and forth between rebel and loyalist hands. They were in Brega at dawn, but they soon pulled out under heavy shelling from Gadhafi’s forces. Black smoke billowed in the air over Brega as mortars exploded. – Agencies