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| Africa North | ||
| Prospects fade for military overthrow of Gaddafi | ||
| 2011-04-09 | ||
| [Ennahar] Libyan rebels said on Friday they repulsed a government assault on the besieged city of Misrata but prospects faded for a military overthrow of Muammar Qadaffy. NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... leaders acknowledged the limits of their air power, which has caused rather than broken a military stalemate, and analysts predicted a long-drawn out conflict that could end in the partition of the North African oil producer.
Misrata, a lone major rebel outpost in the west of the country, has been under siege by Qadaffy's forces for weeks. On Friday snuffies said they had pushed back an assault on the eastern flank of the coastal city after fierce street battles. "The attack from the east has been repelled now and the (pro-Qadaffy) forces have been pushed back," rebel front man Hassan al-Misrati told Rooters by telephone. The only active front in the war, along the Mediterranean coast around the eastern cities of Brega and Ajdabiyah, has descended into stalemate for a week with both sides making advances and then retreating behind secure lines at night. On Friday rebels at the western boundary of Ajdabiyah, gateway to their Benghazi stronghold, decamped from an artillery bombardment but there was no sign of a government advance. The head of U.S. Africa Command, General Carter Ham, said the conflict was entering stalemate and it was very unlikely the rebels would be able to fight their way into Tripoli. POLITICAL SOLUTION Early hopes that air attacks on Qadaffy forces would tip the balance in favor of the rebels have now evaporated and Western leaders are emphasizing a political solution. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen took a similar line to Ham on Friday. "There is no military solution only. We need a political solution," he told Al Jizz television. NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu spoke of the difficulties facing alliance pilots because of Qadaffy's tactics. "The fact is they are using human shields and parking tanks next to mosques and schools so it is very hard to pinpoint any military hardware without causing civilian casualties," she said. Analysts predicted an extended conflict leading toward possible division of the country between east and west. "The opposition forces are insufficient to break this deadlock and so as things stand the march on Tripoli is not going to happen," said John Marks, chairman of Britain's Cross Border Information consultancy. "This standoff looks like it could go on pretty much forever ... for now we have a stalemate so we are looking rather more at a de facto partition." Geoff Porter of North Africa Risk Consulting agreed. "It is increasingly unlikely that the rebels will get anywhere close to Tripoli," he said. The confusion on the desert battlefield has caused "friendly fire" incidents, increasing anger among the rebels, who said they lost five men on Thursday when NATO planes bombed a column of 20 tanks brought out of storage to bolster the eastern front. REBEL RETREAT The strike sent the rebels into a confused retreat back toward Ajdabiyah. It was the second time in less than a week that rebels had blamed NATO for bombing their comrades by mistake after 13 were killed in an air strike not far from the same spot on Saturday. Rebels in Ajdabiyah painted the roofs of their vehicles bright pink on Friday to identify them better to NATO planes. "NATO is an alliance against the Libyan people," said Alaa Senudry, a rebel volunteer on he edge of Ajdabiyah. At the same time as expressing anger about the attacks, the rebels have accused NATO of being too slow to order air strikes to support their rag-tag army, a charge denied by the alliance. Misrata, Libya's third city, rose up with other towns against Qadaffy in mid-February and has been under siege for weeks after a crackdown put an end to most protests in the west. Rebels say people in Misrata are crammed five families to a house in the few safe districts, to escape weeks of sniper, mortar and rocket fire. There are severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies. The snuffies have used containers filled with sand and stone to block roads and break supply lines to Qadaffy forces including snipers in Misrata, the rebel front man said. Ashour Shamis, a U.K.-based Libyan opposition activist, said the coastal town was key to breaking the stalemate. "The reason is that Misrata has a big port that acts as a key supply route of food and medicine for Tripoli, and Sirte as well. To keep Tripoli going, Qadaffy needs Misrata." | ||
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 Where is General Graziani when you really need him? |
| Posted by: borgboy 2011-04-09 16:49 |
| #5 Yeah, remember how the drooling lefties in 2009 wanted to hold hearings and have indictments for Bush and Company for the 'illegal war'. Someone in the White House was smart enough to avoid setting precedent for their little tour a few years latter on the calendar. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-04-09 10:25 |
| #4 Rebels in Ajdabiyah painted the roofs of their vehicles bright pink on Friday to identify them better to NATO planes. Qadaffy's units to follow in 5...4...3... On the other hand, the U.S. Justice Department said Obama's brief but expensive foray against Uncle Curly was "constitutional". So, though it's a clusterf--k, it was legal. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2011-04-09 09:56 |
| #3 I don't know that Muammar is smocking---but, IMO, Nicki & Davy could use some of it. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-04-09 04:49 |
| #2 His will fall apart. It's a matter of time. Time we may not have. |
| Posted by: newc 2011-04-09 04:04 |
| #1 See also FREEREPUBLIC/TOPIX > THE BATTLE AGZ GADDAFI: NATO FEARS "WAR WITHOUT END" IN LIBYA. and * TELEGRAPH.UK > LIBYA TO UNLEASH WAVE [waves?] OF MIGRANTS ON EUROPE. 26000 Tunisian immigrants have arrived on Lampedusa since January 2011, ROMA WORKING OVERTIME TO GET EURO-STATES TO ACCEPT ITALIE' TRAVEL VISAS, ETC. FROM SAME, TO SAME, FOR SAME. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-04-09 00:43 |