NATO says Dictator Gaddafi forces 'significantly degraded'

The head of the NATO military alliance has said that military and political pressure have weakened Dictator Muammar Gaddafi's hold on power in Libya and will eventually topple him.

"We have significantly degraded Gaddafi's war machine. And now we see results, the opposition has gained ground," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, on Thursday.

"I am confident that combination of strong military pressure and increased political pressure and support for the opposition will eventually lead to the collapse of the regime."

Rasmussen’s comments were echoed by US President Barack Obama.

"Time is working against Gaddafi. He does not have control over his country. The opposition has organised a legitimate and credible Interim Council," Obama said in Washington.

"When Gaddafi inevitably leaves or is forced from power, decades of provocation will come to an end and the transition to a democratic Libya can proceed," he said, defending his decision to take military action against the Libyan leader's anti democratic regime.

Full recognition of the National Transitional Council (of pro democracy figters) is yet to be done but says it is a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people

The United States has stopped short of full diplomatic recognition of Libya's pro democracy council but the White House has said the council is a "legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people".

(Photo ; Libyan Freedom figters held mass demonstrations after midday prayers in the opposition stronghold of Benghazi on Friday)


Mahmoud Jibril, who serves as the foreign minister of the rebels' National Transitional Council (NTC), met the Tom Donilon, the US president's national security advisor, at the White House on Friday.

"During the meeting, Mr Donilon stated that the United States views the [NTC] as a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people," the White House said in a statement released after the meeting.



"In contrast, Mr Donilon stressed that [Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi has lost his legitimacy to rule and reiterated [US] President [Barack] Obama's call for Gaddafi to leave immediately," it said.

Obama did not meet with the opposition leaders.

"Mr Donilon and Dr Jibril discussed how the United States and the coalition can provide additional support to the [NTC]. Mr Donilon applauded the [NTC's] commitment to an inclusive political transition and a democratic future for Libya," the statement concluded.

The recognition stops short of what the NTC had sought. In an op-ed published in the New York Times ahead of his meetings in Washington, Jibril had written that the NTC was seeking to be recognised as the "sole" legitimate representative of the Libyan people.

The White House, however, has signaled that such a move would be premature.

"I don't anticipate action like that," Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said.

Meanwhile, the US has stepped up its financial support of the anti-Gaddafi rebels, with Obama authorising $25m in non-lethal assistance and $53m in humanitarian aid.

The White House said it was looking for ways to increase US financial support to the opposition, in part through congressional legislation that would free up a portion of the more than $30bn in frozen assets connected to the Gaddafi government in US banks, so that it could be used to aid the rebels.

"We believe that if we could access and use blocked government of Libya assets it could make a significant amount of money available to alleviate the suffering of the Libyan people," Carney said.

The rebels have said they need up to $3bn in the coming months for military salaries, food, medicine and other supplies. They also say no country has sent the arms they need.

"If there is any country that is willing to arm us, we are happy to defend ourselves," Ali Tarhouni, the council's minister of finance and oil, said after a meeting at the State Department on Friday.

"This is a thug, a killer regime that took a peaceful movement and forced us to carry arms. It's legitimate that we have arms to defend ourselves."

Despite financially backing the opposition, the White House says questions about who exactly the rebels are and their long-term objectives are keeping the United States from recognising the council as the legitimate Libyan government.

"The question of recognition is one of many policy issues still under review," Carney said.

Friday's meetings come as a deadline nears on the 60-day window Obama has to keep the US military involved in the Libya campaign without congressional approval.

However, the White House said the United States and NATO will continue military operations in Libya as long as Muammar Gaddafi continues to attack his people.

The White House spokesman offered no specifics on how the US planned to do that, saying only that officials were, "in regular communications with Congress, and that will continue".


Administration officials have been eager to show signs of progress in the Libyan bombing campaign, first led by the US and now overseen by NATO.

Obama on Friday met privately with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO Secretary-General, in the Oval Office, and the White House said the two agreed that the military action would go on until Gaddafi's assault on civilians had stopped.

NATO has been intensifying airstrikes in several areas of Libya against Gaddafi's troops in a bid to weaken his campaign against the rebel uprising.

The Libyan leader, in an audio message broadcast on state television on Friday, said he had survived the assault.

Hours after Gaddafi's minute-long speech, the sound of four explosions, most likely a NATO strike, could be heard in Tripoli.

Government spokesman Ibrahim Uthman said the strikes targeted the country's Agriculture Ministry. The same building, however, was targeted days ago and, at the time, residents said it was a government intelligence building.

Shortly before Gaddafi's remarks were broadcast, regime spokesman Moussa Ibrahim claimed that a NATO airstrike in Brega had targeted a meeting of dozens of clerics and officials from around Libya, a claim NATO denies.

Ibrahim said 11 imams were killed in their sleep at a guesthouse, and 50 people were wounded, including five in critical condition.

The alliance, responding to the claim, said it had attacked a military command-and-control centre, and that it could "not independently confirm the validity" of claims of civilian casualties.

"We're very careful in the selection of our targets and this one was very clearly identified as a command center," said an official at NATO's operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, who spoke under the alliance's rules that he could not be named.

NATO targets Libyan weapons depots - Freedom Fighters report coalition air strikes against anti democratic regime targets near Zintan, as well as strikes near Misurata.

NATO air attacks have hit anti democratic regime weapons depots near Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, the capital, according to a Freedom Fighter in the town.

Separately, two loud explosions rocked a western sector of Tripoli on Sunday as jets flew overhead, witnesses had told the AFP news agency.



An international coalition began carrying out attacks on forces loyal to Dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's long-time ruler and destroyer, on March 19, under a UN mandate to protect civilians in the country. NATO took command of operations over Libya on March 31.

"NATO struck weapons depots five minutes ago in an area which lies about 30km southeast of Zintan," Abdulrahman, the freedom fighter, told the Reuters news agency by telephone on Sunday.

"We heard a loud explosion ... I think the strike hit some of them [the depots].

"We are now at a cemetery burying 11 people martyred during yesterday's fighting, in which 35 other fighters were also wounded."

The reported air raids came a week after the Libyan Regime said that Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, and three of his grandchildren were killed in a NATO air strike on a compound in Tripoli but some believe that they had being murdered under the direct orders of Gaddafi in order to get back the support of civilians who are leaving him day by day..

Elsewhere in the country, freedom figters in the contested city of Misurata clashed with regime forces near the airport, a spokesman of pro democracy fighters told the Reuters news agency on Sunday.

"Fierce fighting is taking place now at the airport and in the air force college area [near the airport]. We are still hearing sounds of artillery and rockets," the spokesman, called Abdelsalam, said from Misurata.

"NATO struck an area in the east of Misurata today but we do not have details."


Meanwhile, Tunisia warned on Sunday that the repeated shelling from Libya of one of its border towns may force it to take measures to protect its sovereignty.

The country's official TAP news agency said that about 80 shells from Libya had fallen on Tunisian territory.


There were no reported injuries after the shells fell as Libyan troops fought with freedom figters to regain control of the Wazen-Dhehiba border post.

TAP quoted the Tunisian foreign ministry as warning that the country would take "all measures needed" within the law to ensure protection of its citizens, refugees and its territory.

Tunisia summoned Libya's ambassador on April 29 to complain after shells fell in inhabited areas. It now says Libya is not keeping to its commitments.

Meanwhile Italian coast guards and local fisherman saved all 528 refugees on a boat from Libya after their vessel hit rocks off the island of Lampedusa in an operation a rescuer described as a "miracle."

Among the refugees who had thrown themselves into the water at night were 24 pregnant women.

Western Coalitions to create fund for Libya Freedom Fighters

Countries involved in military campaign pledge money to provide food, medicine and supplies to opponents of Gaddafi.

The NATO-backed coalition in Libya has said it will create a fund for rebels fighting the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

The Transitional National Council (TNC), based in Benghazi, has appealed for loans of up to $3bn, saying they need around half of that for food, medicine and other basic supplies.

Italy, host of Thursday's meeting in Rome of the Contact Group on Libya, said the temporary special fund would aim to channel cash to the opposition administration in its eastern Libyan stronghold.

Franco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, said $250m were already available, while his French counterpart said the fund could be up and running within weeks.

But efforts to unblock Libyan state assets frozen in overseas accounts, or to allow the rebels to get past UN sanctions that prevent their selling oil on international markets, have been held up.

"We'll be discussing a financial mechanism, we'll be discussing other forms of aid," Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said at a joint news conference with Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister.

"I will be formally announcing our non-lethal assistance so I think that there is an effort with urgency to meet the requests that the TNC is making," she said.

Loan rather than gift'

Clinton said the US government would try and free up some of the $30bn it has frozen in Libyan assets to help the TNC.

She said the administration of Barack Obama wants "to tap some portion of those assets owned by Gaddafi and the Libyan government in the United States, so we can make those funds available to help the Libyan
people".

Kuwait said it has pledged $180m and Qatar will put in $400-$500m, its prime minister said on Thursday.

However Britain has said it has no plans to contribute to the new fund because it had already made a "very substantial" contribution to humanitarian assistance.

Laurence Lee, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Rome, said it had been suggested that the money would not be a gift, but a loan from the coalition countries.

"One assumes that in the fullness of time this would be repaid by oil sales, which Qatar already started with one shipment of oil. And it may be able to be repaid relatively quickly.

He said the countries that recognise the rebel council, France, Italy and Qatar, are the ones with which the TNC will do business.

"The fact that it will be France and Italy that will be administing this fund is bound to lead some people to think that this is quite a good way of persuading a cash-strapped eastern Libya in Benghazi to accept a deal which is going to put oil and money into the hands of countries like France, Italy and Qatar.

"So although it looks like benevolence, there is a hard headed financial imperative that goes underneath it."

Mahmoud Shammam, chief spokesman for the TNC, has said the rebels urgently need $1.5bn to cover immediate running costs.

"We need this for medical supplies, for food supplies, to keep the minimum functions of normal life - electricity,
running hospitals etc," he said on Wednesday.

The rebels also want to press their cases for better weapons and equipment, Shammam suggested, saying that they are "hungry for basic arms."

The meeting of Libya Contact Group brought together foreign ministers from countries including France, Britain, the United States, Italy and Qatar as well as representatives of the Arab League and the African Union.

British officials said the Rome meeting would seek to impose new restrictions on arms smuggling and mercenaries operating within Libya, and hoped the contact group would work on action intended to restrict Gaddafi's exports of crude oil and his ability to import refined oil products.


Continuation of clashes

As the ministers met in Italy, fighting continued on the ground in Libya.

In Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, a rebel spokesman said NATO planes struck Gaddafi's forces and weapons depots west of the rebel-held town in two raids on Thursday.

"As far as we know, T-72 tanks, Grad missile launchers and heavy weaponry are kept in those depots," the spokesman, named Abdulrahman, told Reuters by telephone.

Earlier, Abdulrahman said pro-Gaddafi forces had fired about 50 Russian-made Grad rockets into Zintan on Thursday.

Near the border with Tunisia, a rebel fighter told Reuters there was intense fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces in the area of the village of Ghezaya.

 The village lies between the Dehiba-Wazin border crossing, which is in rebel hands, and the town of Nalut where residents said Gaddafi loyalists had been shelling rebel positions.

Rebels say they are preparing for an attempt by Gaddafi's forces to retake the crossing.

Late on Thursday a Tunisian security source said more than a dozen mortar rounds fired from Libya had landed near Dehiba, one of them near a reservoir supplying the town with drinking water.

3 key figures in Anti Democaratic Gaddafi's regime will have to face WAR Crimes for crimes against humanity in Libya

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) has told the UN Security Council that he will seek three arrest warrants for crimes against humanity in Libya.

Charges against the three members of the Libyan government may include murder and unlawful detention, use of cluster bombs and rape as a weapon, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said on Wednesday.

The UN Security Council referred the Libyan violence to the ICC in February.

Moreno-Ocampo is investigating Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, some of his sons and aides over a "pre-determined plan" to attack protesters.

He did not, however, name the targets of the arrest warrants, which he said he will request in several weeks for crimes against humanity committed in Libya since February 15.

"Crimes against humanity have been and continue to be committed in Libya, attacking unarmed civilians including killings and persecutions in many cities across Libya," the prosecutor said in a statement.

The prosecutor added that he was also investigating the deaths of dozens of sub-Saharan Africans in the rebel capital of Benghazi by an "angry mob" who believed they were mercenaries for Gaddafi.

Khalid Kaim, the Libyan deputy foreign minister, dismissed the ICC allegations saying Moreno-Ocampo's report painted a partial picture.

"Any decision or any conclusion can Mr. Ocampo draw out of his visit to Benghazi and to Egypt will be just one party review or one party position," Kaim said.

"Of course, since we are not party of the ICC, we cannot invite Mr. Ocampo but instead of that we can invite another fact-finding mission from the [UN] Security Council."

Rape as a weapon

Moreno-Ocampo said there were allegations that Africans from other nations had been attacked in rebel territory because they were thought to be mercenaries.

Alleged criminal incidents include security forces opening live fire at unarmed peaceful protesters, using rape as well as "systemic arrests, torture, killings, deportations, enforced disappearances and destruction of mosques" as a weapon, according to the prosecutor's report.

While a precise number is hard to provide, up to 700 people were killed in February alone, the report said. Gaddafi estimates that "only 150 or 200" have been killed.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said almost 40,000 people fled fighting in western Libya last month.

France’s Appetite for Interference Swelling

UK Expels Libyan EnvoyDavid Cameron's government says it is expelling the Libyan ambassador after an attack on the British embassy in Tripoli. Al Jazeera's Emma Hayward has the latest from London

Libya Crisis: Britain Expels Libyan AmbassadorBBC: The Libyan ambassador to the UK has been expelled following attacks on British embassy premises in Tripoli.Foreign missions in Libya's capital have been targeted by crowds angry at reports that a Nato air strike had killed a son of Col Muammar Gaddafi.A BBC team there said the UK embassy building had been completely burnt out.The foreign

Libyan Government: NATO Strike Kills Gaddafi's SonLibyan government says one of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's sons has been killed in a NATO attack on a Tripoli house. NATO did not confirm reports of 29-year-old Saif al-Arab's death. Opposition forces voiced scepticism, suggesting that the news could have been fabricated. 
Al Jazeera's Caroline Malone reportsTHE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Col Gaddafi's