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Arab League urges no-fly zone for Libya

March 13, 2011 Comments off

 

 

In a stark rebuke to one of its members, the Arab League urged the United Nations on Saturday to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.

The move came even as forces loyal to Moammar Kadafi advanced eastward toward the strategic city of Port Brega in an intensifying onslaught against out-gunned rebels, who retreated from airstrikes and rocket barrages that thundered across deserts and coastal highways.

The Libyan army has made substantial gains in recent attacks, driving insurgents from the country’s largest petrochemical refinery near Uqaylah on Saturday and routing them earlier from Ras Lanuf, about 25 miles west, and Zawiya in the west of the country. The opposition has Read more…

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Gaddafi Strikes At Oil Refinery, Escalating the War

March 10, 2011 Comments off

bigpeace.com

Libyan government warplanes have struck an oil facility near the rebel-held eastern town of Ras Lanuf during a heavy bombardment aimed at driving out opposition forces trying to topple Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The warplanes bombed the As Sidr oil facility Wednesday, causing a fire and sending huge plumes of smoke into the sky. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Forces loyal to Gadhafi also shelled rebel positions west of Ras Lanuf, forcing the rebels to retreat. The oil port represents the front line of the rebels’ advance out of their stronghold of eastern Libya.

Libyan government forces also were tightening their siege of the western town of Zawiya, the closest rebel-held area to Gadhafi’s power base in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Residents said Gadhafi loyalists were surrounding rebels holding out in Zawiya’s central square, using snipers and tanks in the assault.

In remarks broadcast on state television Wednesday, Gadhafi called on Read more…

Categories: age of rage, Libya, Oil, Protests Tags: , , , , , , ,

Questions Remain on Libyan Mustard Agent Stockpile

March 4, 2011 Comments off

globalsecuritynewswire.org

(Mar. 3) – Antigovernment activists in Libya march today in a funeral procession for one of five people killed yesterday in fighting with dictator Muammar Qadhafi’s forces (Gianluigi Guercia/Getty Images).


The U.S. intelligence community is uncertain of the exact location of Libya’s remaining chemical warfare materials, though officials say besieged dictator Muammar Qadhafi has moved to bolster the security surrounding the primary cache of mustard blister agent, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, March 2).

(Mar. 3) – Antigovernment activists in Libya march today in a funeral procession for one of five people killed yesterday in fighting with dictator Muammar Qadhafi’s forces (Gianluigi Guercia/Getty Images).

Before fighting began last month, Libya had been making Read more…

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Gaddafi warns of bloodbath if West intervenes

March 3, 2011 Comments off

economictimes.indiatimes.com

TRIPOLI: Libyan strongman Moamer Gaddafi warned on Wednesday “thousands” would die if the West intervened to support the uprising against him, as rebels drove back an attack by his forces on an eastern town.

The chilling warning came as western powers dampened expectations of any early imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, amid a clamour from western states for action to prevent Kadhafi’s warplanes from attacking his own people.

The United States is a “long way” from deciding on whether to impose a no-fly zone, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as two US Navy ships steamed into position off Libya.

The 22-member Arab League appeared to offer an Arab and Read more…

Categories: Libya, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Gadhafi’s $30 Billion In US Assets Blocked By Treasury

March 1, 2011 Comments off

forbes.com

By AGUSTINO FONTEVECCHIA
BENGHAZI, LIBYA - FEBRUARY 26: Mothers mourn ...Libya’s people have taken most of the country, Gadhafi still controls Tripoli – Getty Images via @daylife

In addition to having his assets frozen by the Swiss and British governments, Colonel Muammar al-Gadhafi’s holdings in the United States have been blocked by the Department of the Treasury, which claims to have located at least $30 billion in Libyan assets.

After an executive order signed by President Barack Obama on Friday declared the “actions of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi [sic], his government, and close associates, […] an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the U.S. Treasury began to track down Libyan assets in Read more…

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Libya: West ready to use force against Col Gaddafi amid chemical weapon fears

March 1, 2011 1 comment

telegraph.co.uk

The Prime Minister disclosed that he would not rule out “the use of military assets” as Britain “must not tolerate this regime using military forces against its own people”. Britain and America are also thought to be considering arming rebel forces in Libya.

Adding to growing concern about the crumbling regime’s ability to commit last desperate acts of mass murder, British sources have disclosed that Libya still has stocks of mustard gas chemicals.

Mr Cameron told MPs that Britain and its allies were considering using fighter jets to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, patrolling and shooting down Libyan aircraft ordered to attack protesters.

The Pentagon announced that the Americans had begun “repositioning forces” around Libya to provide “flexibility”. The French also announced that they would back a possible military intervention with Nato partners.

The warnings were sounded after Gaddafi was accused of ordering Libyan aircraft to attack a Read more…

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Zawiyah: 30 miles from Tripoli, the city on the frontline of Libya’s revolt

February 28, 2011 Comments off
A man stands on a Libyan tank

guardian.co.uk

A man stands on a Libyan army tank manned by soldiers opposed to leader Muammar Gaddafi in the city of Zawiyah, holding a sign that reads in Arabic ‘Our demand: freedom.’ Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

“If you go down there you will meet young men with guns,” said one of the Libyan government minders. “Please be careful,” he warned.

The crossing from the territory controlled by the regime of Colonel Gaddafi to rebel-held land was a short walk, as unexpected as it was bizarre.

Bizarre, because we had been delivered to the edge of the city of Zawiyah by Gaddafi’s men, who were supposed to be showing us how far their leader’s writ still extended. Instead they let us out of our cars and made no effort to prevent us crossing to the other side.

The “down there” mentioned by the minder was a broad boulevard with barricades across the street. A man with a machine gun came out of a door, ammunition belt across his shoulder. A half hour’s drive from the centre of Tripoli and Gaddafi’s control had Read more…

Categories: age of rage, Libya, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Zimbabwean army helping Gaddafi in Libya

February 28, 2011 Comments off

thezimbabwean.co.uk

emmerson_mnangagwaSpeculation that members of the Zimbabwe National Army are in Libya to help prop up cornered dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, has gained momentum. This follows Zimbabwe’s Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa (pictured) avoiding giving a straight answer to a question posed in Parliament.

With the eastern part of Libya having fallen to anti-Gaddafi protesters, it’s being reported that mercenaries from several African countries, including Zimbabwe, are putting up a stand in the west of the country, including the capital Tripoli, on behalf of Gaddafi. They are reportedly gunning down unarmed civilians at random and Arab TV channel Al Jazeera said that Zimbabwe was helping to provide mercenaries, along with Chad and other African countries.

In Parliament on Wednesday MDC-T MP and Chief Whip, Innocent Gonese, asked Mnangagwa to respond to reports that soldiers from Zimbabwe are involved. Instead of giving a Read more…

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Foreigners in Libya report being beaten, robbed

February 27, 2011 Comments off

latimes.com

Reporting from Ras Ajdir, Tunisia —

Paying $200 for a government-sponsored taxi ride to the Tunisian border sounded like a bad deal. But Tunisian laborer Amr Soltan had no idea just how bad until he and his friends were driven instead to a prison, locked up for five days, robbed of their cellphones by police and beaten by guards.

“It’s a miracle that I am alive,” he said after arriving in his own country as one of the thousands who have been brutalized by Libyan security forces during the uprising against Moammar Kadafi‘s 41-year rule. “They accused us of being traitors because our people revolted against dictators.”

Unlike Arab leaders facing challenges in Morocco, Bahrain, Jordan, Algeria and Yemen, Kadafi and son Seif Islam have responded to their enemies not with substantive concessions and appeals to calm but with blood-curdling rhetoric.

Many Arab leaders cringed when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ousted, but Kadafi’s actions may strengthen resolve across the Arab world to unseat him. Libya’s membership in the Read more…

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US to impose sanctions on Libya, close embassy

February 25, 2011 Comments off

WASHINGTON — The United States said on Friday it was imposing unilateral and multilateral sanctions on Libya in a bid to halt and punish Moamer Kadhafi’s crackdown on protests.

Washington also said that it has closed its embassy in Tripoli for security reasons, and warned that US intelligence assets were monitoring events for evidence of atrocities committed by Kadhafi’s forces.

The announcements from White House spokesman Jay Carney came as a US-chartered ferry carrying more than 300 evacuees reached safety in the Mediterranean island of Malta, and a chartered flight carrying more US citizens left Tripoli, destination Turkey.

Carney said that Kadhafi had “lost the confidence” of his people, but stopped short of saying that he should go, saying it was up to the Libyans to decide his fate.

The White House had decided with its partners to “move forward” with unilateral and multilateral sanctions against Libya, Carney said, adding that Washington was cutting off limited military assistance and had put financial Read more…

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