BREGA, Libya – Col Muammar Gadafy launched a land and air offensive to retake territory in Libya’s east at dawn yesterday, sparking a rebel call for foreign air strikes on African mercenaries they said were helping him to stay in power.
The veteran ruler twinned the attack with a fiery propaganda broadside against the rebels, playing on both nationalist opinion and western jitters by saying much blood would be shed in “another Vietnam” if foreign powers intervened in the crisis.
“We will enter a bloody war and thousands and thousands of Libyans will die if the United States enters or Nato enters,” Col Gadafy told Tripoli supporters at a gathering which was televised live.
“We are ready to hand out weapons to a million, or two million or three million, and another Vietnam will begin. It doesn’t matter to us. We no longer care about anything.”
On the battlefield, government troops briefly captured Brega, an oil export terminal, before being driven back by rebels who have held the town 800km (500 miles) east of Tripoli for about a week, rebel officers said, adding they were ready to move westwards against Col Gadafy’s forces if he refused to quit.
Further bombing raids near the oil terminals were carried out in the afternoon. Estimates of the death toll during the day ranged between five and 14.
There has been talk among the international community of the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, but US defence secretary Robert Gates yesterday said such a move would first require an attack to cripple Libyan air defences.
“One of our biggest concerns is Libya descending into chaos and becoming a giant Somalia,” US secretary of state Hillary Clinton told US politicians.
Col Gadafy, who once said ballot box democracy was for donkeys, told the gathering in Tripoli the world did not understand he had given power to the people long ago.
“We put our fingers in the eyes of those who doubt that Libya is ruled by anyone other than its people,” he said, referring to his system of “direct democracy” launched at a meeting attended by visiting Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1977.
A Tripoli resident and opponent of Col Gadafy who did not want to be named told Reuters after the gathering: “Gadafy will hang on for a while. It’s not going to be easy for an unarmed crowd to face highly armed forces eager to shoot their own people.”
The assault on Brega appeared to be the most significant military operation by Col Gadafy since the uprising erupted in mid-February and set off a confrontation that Washington says could descend into a long civil war unless Col Gadafy steps down.
Witnesses said the attack was backed by heavy weapons and air strikes. One of the witnesses said Col Gadafy’s forces were 2-3km from the city centre, and had 300-350 rebels pinned down at an airport on the city outskirts.
In the opposition bastion of Benghazi, a rebel National Libyan Council called for UN-backed air strikes on African mercenaries said Col Gadafy was using.
“We call for specific attacks on strongholds of these mercenaries,” council spokesman Hafiz Ghoga said. “The presence of any foreign forces on Libyan soil is strongly opposed. There is a big difference between this and strategic air strikes.”
Foreign military involvement in Arab countries is a sensitive topic for western nations, in light of Iraq having suffered years of bloodletting and al-Qaeda-related violence after a 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.
The Libyan leader might do something “desperate” to defend his regime, Italy’s industry minister said.
“There is a possibility, indeed a real possibility, that Gadafy might make a desperate last-ditch attempt to free himself from the siege that he finds himself in,” said Paolo Romani on Italian television. In the Netherlands, the International Criminal Court prosecutor said he would begin an investigation into the violence.
Across Libya, tribal leaders, officials, military officers and army units have defected to the rebel cause and say they are becoming more organised, but Tripoli remains a Gadafy stronghold.
Washington says it will keep pressure on Col Gadafy to quit, and is moving ships and aircraft closer to Libya in what is widely seen as a symbolic show of force. Yesterday, two US amphibious assault ships arrived in the Mediterranean through Egypt’s Suez Canal. – (Reuters)