Gaddafi defiant as Nato strikes intensify
By Michael Peel in Abu Dhabi and Daniel Dombey in WashingtonPublished: June 7 2011 19:43 | Last updated: June 7 2011 19:43
Nato air strikes pounded Tripoli with the heaviest bombardment of the alliance’s 11-week Libya campaign, as Colonel Muammer Gaddafi vowed to fight to the death against intensifying efforts to oust him.
The aircraft launched more than two dozen strikes throughout the day on Tuesday on the area around the leader’s compound and other targets as leading world powers upped the diplomatic pressure for him to stand down.
The escalating Nato action – which critics say has gone beyond the military alliance’s UN mandate to protect civilians – comes amid other signs of a weakening in Col Gaddafi’s resistance to an almost three-month rebel uprising against his 41-year rule.
Nato aircraft had launched at least 27 strikes by mid-afternoon, reporters in Tripoli said, with smoke visible above Col Gaddafi’s sprawling and heavily fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound. State television said some bombs had hit the compound, while a government spokesman said others were targeted at a barracks nearby hit by previous air strikes.
The fresh strikes came as President Barack Obama gave an upbeat assessment of progress in the military action against Col Gaddafi’s forces, and called on Germany to join other US allies in preparing for life after the regime.
“It is just a matter of time before [Col] Gaddafi goes,” the US leader told reporters at a joint news conference with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.
“There is going to be a lot of work to do when Gaddafi does step down in terms of getting the Libyan people back on their feet – economic, political work that’s going to have to be done,” he said. “My expectation is going to be that there will be full and robust German support.”
Libya has been a point of contention between the US and Germany following Berlin’s abstention in the UN Security Council vote authorising the use of force, although Ms Merkel noted that Germany supported the Nato mission – not least by freeing up other alliance members’ assets by doing more in Afghanistan.
Col Gaddafi responded to the fresh strikes with a rare and defiant audio broadcast on state television in which he warned: “We will not kneel. We will not surrender.”
As well as the bombings, the Libyan leader has been hit by defections from his regime, and shortages of fuel and other goods as economic sanctions bite, as well as rebel gains in the strategically important Nafusa mountains south of Tripoli.
The US and other anti-Gaddafi forces are part of an international contact group on Libya that is due to meet on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates.
The increasingly heavy Nato bombing is causing growing divisions between those countries – such as the US, Britain and France – that argue they are helping hasten the end of a regime responsible for mass killings of civilians, and critics who say the strategy is destroying any prospect of a negotiated transition of power.
The International Crisis Group, a respected Brussels-based conflict-resolution body, argues that the insistence by rebels and western powers that Col Gaddafi leave and face trial for war crimes will almost certainly ensure “that he will stay in Libya to the bitter end and go down fighting”.
The aircraft launched more than two dozen strikes throughout the day on Tuesday on the area around the leader’s compound and other targets as leading world powers upped the diplomatic pressure for him to stand down.
The escalating Nato action – which critics say has gone beyond the military alliance’s UN mandate to protect civilians – comes amid other signs of a weakening in Col Gaddafi’s resistance to an almost three-month rebel uprising against his 41-year rule.
Nato aircraft had launched at least 27 strikes by mid-afternoon, reporters in Tripoli said, with smoke visible above Col Gaddafi’s sprawling and heavily fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound. State television said some bombs had hit the compound, while a government spokesman said others were targeted at a barracks nearby hit by previous air strikes.
The fresh strikes came as President Barack Obama gave an upbeat assessment of progress in the military action against Col Gaddafi’s forces, and called on Germany to join other US allies in preparing for life after the regime.
“It is just a matter of time before [Col] Gaddafi goes,” the US leader told reporters at a joint news conference with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.
“There is going to be a lot of work to do when Gaddafi does step down in terms of getting the Libyan people back on their feet – economic, political work that’s going to have to be done,” he said. “My expectation is going to be that there will be full and robust German support.”
Libya has been a point of contention between the US and Germany following Berlin’s abstention in the UN Security Council vote authorising the use of force, although Ms Merkel noted that Germany supported the Nato mission – not least by freeing up other alliance members’ assets by doing more in Afghanistan.
Col Gaddafi responded to the fresh strikes with a rare and defiant audio broadcast on state television in which he warned: “We will not kneel. We will not surrender.”
As well as the bombings, the Libyan leader has been hit by defections from his regime, and shortages of fuel and other goods as economic sanctions bite, as well as rebel gains in the strategically important Nafusa mountains south of Tripoli.
The US and other anti-Gaddafi forces are part of an international contact group on Libya that is due to meet on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates.
The increasingly heavy Nato bombing is causing growing divisions between those countries – such as the US, Britain and France – that argue they are helping hasten the end of a regime responsible for mass killings of civilians, and critics who say the strategy is destroying any prospect of a negotiated transition of power.
The International Crisis Group, a respected Brussels-based conflict-resolution body, argues that the insistence by rebels and western powers that Col Gaddafi leave and face trial for war crimes will almost certainly ensure “that he will stay in Libya to the bitter end and go down fighting”.
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