{"id":431031,"date":"2011-05-27T00:32:29","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T00:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/27\/nato-air-strikes-rock-libyan-capital\/"},"modified":"2011-05-27T00:32:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-27T00:32:29","slug":"nato-air-strikes-rock-libyan-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/27\/nato-air-strikes-rock-libyan-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO air strikes rock Libyan capital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

NATO has launched a fourth night of airstrikes on Tripoli, leaving smoke rising from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s compound where five loud blasts were heard in the vicinity.<\/p>\n

Several large explosions rocked the capital late on Thursday night and a column of smoke was seen rising from Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziyah base.<\/p>\n

The latest\u00a0attacks come only hours after Libya’s government proposed a ceasefire to end more than three months of fighting and the start of unconditional talks with the opposition.<\/p>\n

Spain said it<\/a> was one of several foreign states contacted by Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi, the Libyan prime minister, with an offer of an immediate ceasefire based on an existing African Union roadmap to resolve the conflict, which, crucially, does not mention Gaddafi’s future.<\/p>\n

The rebels insist they want any government initiative to include the Libyan leader’s departure as a first step. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“We welcome any initiative which starts with the departure of Gaddafi, his sons and his regime from Libya,” Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel Transitional National Council,\u00a0told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

But White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, speaking in Deauville, said the United States did not see the new Libyan ceasefire offer as credible.<\/p>\n

Libya<\/a> was not complying with UN demands and its forces were still attacking population centres, so the United States would continue with the military campaign, he told reporters.<\/p>\n

UK to deploy helicopters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s government has now also given clearance for the use of its attack Apache helicopters in ousting Gaddafi.<\/p>\n

If NATO decides to use attack helicopters, it would mark a shift in the coalition’s strategy which has so far relied on fighter planes.<\/p>\n

David Cameron, the British prime minister, who joins Western leaders at the Group of Eight summit in the French seaside resort of Deauville, avoided discussing the matter which has caused tension between Britain and France. France has already said it would deploy attack helicopters.<\/p>\n

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, the most\u00a0vocal Western leader on Libya, is hosting the G8 summit and is expected to use it to press other powers to ramp up pressure on Gaddafi.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy told reporters on Thursday that Gaddafi<\/a> still had the option of remaining in his country but he\u00a0should step down and call off his forces.<\/p>\n

“We are not saying that Gaddafi needs to be exiled, that’s not our problem,”\u00a0he\u00a0said in Deauville.<\/p>\n

“When we say he must leave, he must leave power and the quicker he does it, the greater his choice.”<\/p>\n

Sarkozy added that Gaddafi must send his troops back to their barracks in exchange for any ceasefire agreement, and that a rebellion against his government was making “real progress”.<\/p>\n

Attempts to build a consensus at the summit on Libya may be prevented by Russia, which opposes the NATO bombing.<\/p>\n

Russia has been tasked by the G8 to help defuse the stalemate. Gaddafi denies that his troops target civilians and say his security forces were forced to act to put down a rebellion by criminals and members of al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

Misurata clashes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, forces loyal to Gaddafi launched the heaviest bombardment on the rebel-held city of Misurata for days.<\/p>\n

Rebel spokesmen in Misurata, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in Libya’s three month old conflict, said a mortar attack there killed three rebels.<\/p>\n

Suleim Al-Faqih said the Misurata clashes started when rebels attacked Gaddafi forces who were using an excavator to dig a trench to block a road: “We fired on them and advanced. They fell back and started firing mortars.”<\/p>\n

At a news conference in Misurata late on Thursday, Fathi al Bashaagha, a member of the town’s military council, said rebel forces advanced four km west on Thursday and destroyed weapons depots belonging to Gaddafi loyalists before falling back to their front line on Misurata’s outskirts.<\/p>\n

The military council said it had no immediate plans to advance on Zlitan, the next major town west on the road to Tripoli, which is currently held by Gaddafi loyalists.<\/p>\n

Signs of fracture<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gaddafi’s security forces cracked down when thousands of Libyans rebelled against his rule. NATO missiles and warplanes have been bombing targets in Libya for two months under a UN mandate to protect civilians from attack.<\/p>\n

Rebels now control the east of the country, around their main stronghold of Benghazi, and pockets of land in the West. But the conflict has reached stalemate on the ground, with the rebels unable to advance towards Tripoli and NATO powers – wary of getting sucked into new conflicts after their experience in Iraq and Afghanistan – refusing to put troops on the ground.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Western officials say they are confident<\/a> that they are gradually loosening Gaddafi’s grip on power through a combination of sanctions and military and diplomatic pressure.<\/p>\n

British diplomatic sources said many of Gaddafi’s senior commanders had stopped using their telephones for fear that their calls were being listened to, and there was a sense that the “regime was feeling the pressure and beginning to fracture”.<\/p>\n

Libya’s ambassador to the European Union and Benelux countries, Al Hadi Hadeiba, earlier defected after lengthy talks with EU officials, the Union said.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

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