BENGHAZI – Muammar Gadafy’s son said his camp was nearing a deal with Islamists within Libya’s opposition to isolate more liberal members of the insurgency, as a seized cargo of government-owned fuel docked in a rebel port.
Saif al-Islam Gadafy's comments, in an interview with the New York Times, underscored attempts to exploit divisions within the rebels as they seek to recover from the killing of their military commander and push towards Tripoli on three fronts.
The docking in Benghazi of the Cartagena, a tanker carrying at least 30,000 tonnes of gasoline which belongs to the Tripoli government but that rebels are reported to have seized, will boost an insurgency which has won broad international military and diplomatic backing but is struggling to oust Gadafy.
Meanwhile, the UN’s peace envoy, who failed to make a breakthrough during a visit to Libya last month, secured unspecified Chinese support for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
But there was no sign of a swift breakthrough in the see-saw conflict, now in its sixth month, which is grinding on through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Rebels and pro-Gadafy forces have exchanged fire in the towns of Zlitan and Brega to the east of Tripoli, and a rebel offensive in the western mountains appeared to have stalled.
Saif al-Islam Gadafy told the New York Timeshe had made contact with Islamists among the rebels and they would issue a joint statement on their alliance to isolate or wipe out liberals within days, he said.
Muammar Gadafy cracked down firmly on Islamists during his 41 years in power, and many have now sided with more liberal, pro-western rebels trying to oust him. But the as yet unexplained killing of Gen Abdel Fattah Younes highlighted potential divisions within the mixed bag of anti-Gadafy forces.
“The liberals will escape or be killed,” said Saif al-Islam, once seen as a reformist and a potential successor to his father. “We will do it together . . . Libya will look like Saudi Arabia, like Iran. So what?” he said. “I know they are terrorists. They are bloody. They are not nice. But you have to accept them,” he added.
The New York Timessaid an Islamist rebel figure named by Gadafy's son as his interlocutor had confirmed the contacts but denied he had split with liberals in the rebellion.
Gen Younes earned many enemies during years spent as Gadafy’s security minister before siding with the rebels. These included Islamists, but he also struggled to win support from people mistrustful of a man for so long at the heart of the Gadafy apparatus.
The assassination highlighted the fragile authority the rebel leadership has over its own territory and, coupled with Gadafy’s attempts to exploit divisions, was likely to unnerve the Nato coalition that has bombed government forces for months.
While there has been growing international recognition of the Benghazi-based rebel administration, which has emerged from an uprising against Gadafy’s rule, the rebels are still struggling financially and their fighters are not as well-armed, trained or organised as Gadafy’s. After rapid advances and retreats over Libya’s desert terrain, fighting has slowed down in recent weeks.
Western airstrikes on Gadafy forces have prevented the rebels being overrun in government counterattacks, but they have not yet cleared the path for a rebel push on Tripoli.
Hospital officials in Ajdabiyah said one rebel was killed and four others were wounded in clashes in Brega on Wednesday but the rebels said the frontline was quiet yesterday as they cleared mines set by government forces.
On the western side of Zlitan, a town 160km (100 miles) east of Tripoli, pro-Gadafy officials showed journalists the bodies of two children they said had been killed in a Nato airstrike earlier in the day.
There were no signs of military infrastructure in the area but it was impossible for journalists to confirm the reports. – (Reuters)