TRIPOLI – Nato’s secretary general yesterday slapped down a call from Italy for a suspension of hostilities in Libya and tried to reassure wavering members of the western coalition that Muammar Gadafy could be beaten.
Italy’s ceasefire call exposed the strain on the Nato alliance, nearly 14 weeks into a bombing campaign that has so far failed to dislodge Col Gadafy but is causing mounting concerns over its cost and over civilian casualties.
Asked about Italy's call for a ceasefire, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a newspaper interview: "No, on the contrary. We shall continue and see it through to the end. The allies are committed to making the necessary effort for a sustained operation," he told France's Le Figaro.
“We will take the time needed until the military objective is reached: end all attacks against Libyan civilians, return armed forces to barracks, and freedom of movement for humanitarian aid.”
Nato says it is operating under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians from Col Gadafy’s forces as he tries to crush an uprising against his 41-year rule. Col Gadafy says Nato’s real aim is to steal the country’s plentiful oil.
The US, British and French leaders have said they will keep up the pressure until he leaves power, but the rebels opposing him have been unable to break through his defences and advance on the capital.
British prime minister David Cameron said the Libyan leader’s ability to hold out was being steadily worn down, so now was not the moment for a let-up in pressure on him. “Time is on our side, time is not on the side of Col Gadafy,” Cameron said on a visit to the Czech capital. “So we need to be patient and persistent.”
Nato said it had delivered a major blow to Col Gadafy’s forces near Zlitan, a town about 170km (105 miles) east of Tripoli, where rebels are encircled by his forces. The alliance said it had hit 13 armed vehicles, an armoured personnel carrier and a rocket launcher near the town on Wednesday. A spokesman said there had been gunfire from Nato warships off the coast.
Nato acknowledged for the first time in the campaign last weekend it may have caused multiple civilian casualties after an air strike hit a house in Tripoli.
That widened cracks in the alliance that had already appeared because of the length of time the campaign had been under way without a decisive breakthrough.
Col Gadafy alluded to the civilian casualties in the audio recording broadcast on Wednesday. “You said, ‘We hit our targets with precision’, you murderers!” he said. “One day we will respond to you likewise and your homes will be legitimate targets.”
Libyan officials in Tripoli took reporters to the central Green Square where a crowd of around 200 people, most of them women waving green flags or carrying pictures of Col Gadafy, gathered in support. “We love our leader. We want him to stay in this country,” said one woman, who gave her name as Budur.
Time is now a crucial factor for both sides in the conflict, with unity in the Nato-led coalition likely to come under more strain and Col Gadafy’s ability to resist being steadily worn down by sanctions, air strikes and fighting the rebels.
In a sign his military is being stretched, a Reuters photographer in Al Qalaa, seized earlier this month from pro-Gadafy forces, saw about 50 navy servicemen being held prisoner by rebels in a police station.
The conflict has effectively partitioned Libya. The eastern third around the city of Benghazi is in rebels hands, while the west – apart from some rebel enclaves – is controlled by Col Gadafy. There is almost no movement between the two areas. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had begun an operation to transfer home people who had been trapped on the wrong side of the civil war divide. It said a ship would take several hundred people from Tripoli to Benghazi. About 110 people were due to travel in the other direction.
“Most of the people we are transferring are Libyans who were working away from their home towns or visiting relatives or friends when the conflict broke out. They are very eager to rejoin their families,” said the committee’s Paul Castella. – (Reuters)