Libyan govt scorns rebel conditions for ceasefire

FE Team | Published: April 02, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

TRIPOLI, Apr 2 (agencies): Muammar Gaddafi's government scorned rebel conditions for a nationwide ceasefire, and there was no sign of international diplomatic efforts cooling the Libyan conflict. Western-led forces bombarded "civilian and military locations" late Friday in the towns of Khoms, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Tripoli, and Arrujban, about 190 km to the southwest, state-controlled Libyan television said. Rebels speaking from Misrata said Gaddafi's forces had intensified their siege of the insurgents' last western enclave with an intense bombardment that was killing and maiming civilians. "They used tanks, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and other projectiles to hit the city today. It was random and very intense bombardment," a spokesman called Sami told the news agencies by telephone. "We no longer recognise the place. The destruction cannot be described." Authorities do not allow journalists to report freely from the city. Gaddafi's government in turn accused Western leaders of a "crime against humanity," saying allied warplanes had killed at least six civilians in a new attack. "Some mad and criminal prime ministers and presidents of Europe are leading a crusade against an Arab Muslim nation," Ibrahim said. Civilian deaths haunt the calculations of coalition governments. Casualties could shatter a fragile consensus between Western and Arab capitals which first called for the U.N. mandate to create a no-fly zone and protect civilians. A rebel leader, speaking after talks with a U.N. envoy in Benghazi, earlier on Friday offered a truce on condition that Gaddafi left Libya and his forces quit cities now under government control. "They are asking us to withdraw from our own cities .... If this is not mad then I don't know what this is. We will not leave our cities," government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli a few hours later. Libyan rebels moved heavier weaponry toward government forces at Brega on Friday and sought to marshal their ragtag units into a more disciplined force to fend off Gaddafi's regular army and turn the tide of recent events. Rebels said neither side could claim control of Brega, one of a string of oil towns along the Mediterranean coast that have been taken and retaken by each side in recent weeks. Warplanes flew over Brega, followed by the sound of explosions. A U.S. think tank said the military chief of the rebels, Khalifa Hefta, is a veteran Arab nationalist guerrilla foe of Gaddafi who had backing in the past from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. While Western action has failed to bring any end to fighting or a quick collapse of Gaddafi's administration, signs have emerged of contacts between Tripoli and Western capitals. Meanwhile, fighting raged on the front line between rebel-held eastern Libya and the loyalist-held west on Saturday as rebels claimed to have captured the strategic oil town of Brega. The US military was poised to withdraw its combat jets and Tomahawk cruise missiles from the air campaign this weekend, as NATO allies take the lead in bombing Gaddafi's forces.