Gadhafi loyalists fire rockets from desert bastion (AP)

WADI DINAR, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists fired at least 10 rockets from inside one of his last strongholds Thursday, hours after the ousted Libyan leader urged his fighters to crush opponents he ridiculed as germs and rats.

Former rebels have massed outside the desert town of Bani Walid for days waiting for orders to take the town, but the rocket fire marked an escalation in the standoff, which could reach a climax when a deadline for surrender negotiations runs out this weekend.

The high cost of bringing down Gadhafi's nearly 42-year-rule over the oil-rich nation, meanwhile, came into sharper relief, as the country's interim health minister announced that at least 30,000 people were killed and 50,000 wounded during the six-month civil war.

Though they overran the capital last month, drove Gadhafi into hiding and run a leadership council that is the closest thing to a Libyan government, the fighters cannot claim victory until the remaining handful of loyalist strongholds are under their control and — most importantly — Gadhafi is captured.

Reporters with the forces chasing remaining Gadhafi loyalists heard at least 10 loud explosions along the desert front line at Bani Walid, a dusty town of 100,000 some 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. The barrage followed a close-quarters gunfight in the same area between a patrol of fighters and several loyalist youths in a civilian car. One of the Gadhafi gunmen was killed.

Smoke billowed from where the rockets landed in Wadi Dinar, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) outside Bani Walid. The former rebels said the projectiles fired were Grad rockets.

Bani Walid has emerged as a focus in the fight against pro-Gadhafi holdouts since officials have said a number of prominent regime loyalists, including Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, are believed to be inside.

From hiding hours earlier, Gadhafi denied rumors he had fled Libya, vowed never to leave the land of his ancestors and exhorted followers to keep fighting. The message was broadcast on a pro-Gadhafi satellite TV channel based in Syria.

Gadhafi hasn't been seen in public for months. Finding him would help seal the new rulers' hold on the country and likely trigger the collapse of the remaining regime loyalists.

In Thursday's five-minute audio message, aired on Al-Rai TV, a man who sounded like Gadhafi denounced reports that he had fled to neighboring Niger and claimed he was still in Libya. He called those who ousted him "a bunch of mercenaries, thugs and traitors."

"We are ready to start the fight in Tripoli and everywhere else, and rise up against them," he said. "All of these germs, rats ... they are not Libyans, ask anyone. They have cooperated with NATO."

Niger officials have said senior members of Gadhafi's regime led by his own security chief crossed from Libya on Tuesday. Niger said the group of 13 people did not include Gadhafi, and U.S. officials have said they have no reason to believe Gadhafi is not in Libya. But reports of the apparent defection of some of his top aides — and rumors that it involved a large number of senior soldiers who left with money and gold — were believed to have undermined morale among Gadhafi loyalists.

Gadhafi tried to counter what he called a propaganda war, telling followers in the message broadcast Thursday: "They are trying to demoralize you."

"Gadhafi won't leave the land of his ancestors," he said, referring to himself in the third person, a rhetorical habit.

The authenticity of the recording could not be verified but the voice and style strongly resembled those of Gadhafi, who has used the TV channel in the past.

The Iraqi owner of the station, Mishan al-Jabouri, told The Associated Press the Libyan leader called him at 3 a.m., saying he would either "die or win" but he will not leave Libya.

"We have our own means and methods to keep in contact with them," al-Jabouri said of Gadhafi and his sons.

Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and his intelligence chief are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of crimes against humanity for the crackdown on dissent that began in February.

The court has no police force, and its chief prosecutor asked Thursday for Interpol to help in arresting the men by issuing "red notices." The notices allow warrants to be circulated worldwide with a request that the wanted suspect be arrested.

Rebels have sent mixed signals about what they would do with Gadhafi if they caught him, saying they would cooperate with the ICC but holding open the prospect of trying him in a Libyan court.

Libya's interim health minister, Naji Barakat, said Wednesday that at least 30,000 people were killed and 50,000 wounded in the war. The figures, though incomplete, were based on body counts from some areas and estimates from others, Barakat said.

Libya has just over 6 million people, and if the figure provided by Barakat is confirmed, it would be a measure of the high price Libyans paid to oust Gadhafi. It may take several more weeks to get a complete count, Barakat told The Associated Press.

The economic costs have also been high for the oil-exporting nation.

In Tripoli Thursday, the new governor of Libya's central bank told reporters the former regime sold about 20 percent — or 29 tons — of the country's gold reserves to cover salaries during the uprising. Qassim Azzuz also said none of the bank's roughly $115 billion in assets "went missing or were stolen" during the uprising. He said the figures did not include still unknown sums of money accumulated by Gadhafi and his family, which were held outside the local banking sector.

Besides Bani Walid, the former rebels are still battling loyalists in two other Gadhafi strongholds, Gadhafi's Mediterranean hometown of Sirte and Sabha, deep in the southern desert.

___

Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Tripoli, Rami al-Shaheibi in Benghazi, Libya, and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

View the original article here

Rockets push back rebels south of Libyan capital (Reuters)

BIR-AYYAD, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels who had advanced to within 80 km (50 miles) of Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold in the capital were forced to retreat Friday after coming under a barrage of rocket fire from government forces.

The rebels' advance five days ago to the outskirts of the small town of Bir al-Ghanam had raised the possibility of a breakthrough in a four-month old conflict that has become the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings.

Rebel fighters who had been massing on a ridge near Bir al-Ghanam and preparing for an attack were now pulling back under fire from Russian-made Grad rockets, said a Reuters photographer in Bir-Ayyad, 30 km to the south.

He said the rocket barrage was now reaching as far back as Bir-Ayyad, a road junction in the foothills of the Western Mountains range south-west of Tripoli from where the rebels had launched their advance last week.

The reversal underlines the resilience of Gaddafi's forces, who have withstood 15 weeks of bombardment by NATO missiles and warplanes, and attempts by rebels on three fronts to break through their lines.

Frustration at the slow progress is growing inside the military alliance, with some members worried about the cost, civilian casualties and the fact the campaign has now been going on much longer than its backers anticipated.

There are also differences about how proactive NATO members should be in aiding the rebels, who are hampered by a lack of organization and a shortage of equipment.

France this week became the first member of the anti-Gaddafi alliance to acknowledge that it had supplied weapons to the rebels, saying this was justified to protect civilians under threat from Gaddafi's forces.

It said it used parachutes to drop assault rifles and rocket launchers, along with humanitarian supplies, to rebels in the Western mountains.

That admission prompted Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, to accuse France of a "gross violation" of a U.N. arms embargo.

Even France's NATO allies distanced themselves from the French operation, though Britain and the United States said they believed it was justified under U.N. rules.

NATO STRIKE

Libyan state television reported that NATO had bombed military and civilian sites in the government-controlled town of Garyan, on the eastern edge of the Western Mountains.

NATO said it had successfully destroyed a military target in the town Friday.

"It should be noted that the target was well outside the built-up area of the conurbation and no collateral damage was observed afterwards. At no time was any civilian area targeted," a NATO official said.

Gaddafi has said the NATO campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya's plentiful oil. His aides say arrest warrants issued Monday by the International Criminal Court for him, his son and his brother-in-law have no legitimacy because the court is a tool of the West.

Gaddafi's daughter, Aisha, said in a television interview broadcast late Thursday that her father's administration was prepared to cut a deal with the rebels if that was what it took to stop the bloodshed.

The offer marks a shift in tone. Until now Libyan officials have dismissed the rebels as criminals and no one in the Libyan leader's inner circle has publicly raised the possibility of making any accommodation with them.

"There are direct and indirect negotiations and we should stop letting Libyan blood," Gaddafi's daughter said in an interview with France 2 television.

"And for that we are ready to ally with the devil and that is the armed rebels," said Aisha Gaddafi, a lawyer who has no official government role but has often acted as a mediator on behalf of her family.

But she dismissed the prospect of her father going into exile. "This word departure, departure, departure ... what I find strange is where do you want him to go? This is his country, his land, his people," she said.

The London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Gaddafi's representatives had been meeting officials from France and Britain on the Tunisian island of Djerba.

Citing unnamed sources from the Gaddafi and opposition camps, the newspaper said Gaddafi was willing to step down if he was spared prosecution and allowed to live in his hometown of Sirte, northern Libya, with guarantees for his security.

There was no confirmation of the report from Gaddafi's government, Britain or France.

OPTIONS NARROWING

Anti-Gaddafi rebels rejected talks with the Libyan leader's administration after the International Criminal Court issued its arrest warrants, saying there was no point talking to a war criminal.

Some Libya-watchers say Gaddafi has floated the possibility of a peace deal several times to stall for time and weaken the resolve of the Western alliance to push him out.

But others say he may be looking for a negotiated exit as his options narrow. International sanctions are causing a shortage of fuel in Gaddafi-controlled areas, and NATO strikes are eroding his ability to enforce his power.

The Libyan conflict has sent ripples far beyond the North African country of six million people.

The fighting has halted Libyan oil exports, helping push up world crude prices to about $111 a barrel.

It has also created a security vacuum which officials in the region say could be exploited by Islamist militants and al Qaeda's North African wing.

"If this civil war goes on, it would be a new Somalia, which I don't say lightly. In three months we could be dealing with extremists," Marouane Abassi, World Bank country manager for Libya, told Reuters in the Tunisian capital.

(Additional reporting by Tarek Amara and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Sami Aboudi in Dubai and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Ralph Boulton)

View the original article here