Libya bombing campaign enters 100th day

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Libya bombing campaign enters 100th day

By Beatty (AFP) – 3 hours ago

BENGHAZI, Libya — NATO operations in Libya entered a 100th day on Monday with

airstrikes having eased the siege of key rebel cities but with Moamer Kadhafi

still in power and fears of an open war lingering.

Three months after French jets flew their first missions over eastern Libya,

NATO is still pounding targets across the country in what has become a war

fought on multiple fronts, but with few clear victories for either side.

As " Operation Unified Protector " approaches its 5000 strike sortie, NATO is

still hitting around 50 targets a day, mostly in or around Tripoli and Misrata

in the west; Brega in the east; and the Nafusa Mountains to the south of the

capital.

But the alliance's early success in pushing Kadhafi's forces outside striking

distance of Benghazi and Misrata have not decisively tipped the balance in

favour of the rebels.

An uneasy stalemate has taken hold, with rebel fighters told to hold their

positions around Misrata and Ajdabiya, near Brega, despite the occasional rocket

or mortar attack causing casualties.

" It was all quiet today, " said Musa Maghrebi, a rebel based at Ajdabiya, late on

Sunday. " The forces are staying in position. "

Only in the Nafusa Mountains does the rebel army of ill-equipped irregulars and

defectors appear to be making any sustained progress toward Tripoli.

Despite NATO's limited success in neutralising Kadhafi's forces, most Libyans in

the east remain strongly in favour of the alliance's mission.

Forty-six-year-old Musa Mbarak Al-Okaili, whose brother Mohammed died 100 days

ago after his MiG-23 jet was shot down by Kadhafi forces while he defended

Benghazi, said NATO had helped prevent a massacre.

" They are helping us out, " he said, sitting by a shrine to his brother at the

family home just outside the rebel capital.

" If it was not for NATO and for people like my brother, Kadhafi's army would

have entered Benghazi. "

Among the city's residents there are few doubts about the scale of the bloodshed

that would have ensued had Kadhafi taken the city.

It is a threat that NATO is keen to recall as it faces unease among members

about the length of the war, with some countries including Italy floating the

idea of a ceasefire.

" Three months ago, Benghazi was under threat and Misrata under siege -- so look

where we are now, by comparison, " said Oana Lungescu, a NATO spokeswoman.

" Kadhafi's forces are no longer in a position to mass forces, but they are still

a threat. "

Near the heavily bombarded city of Misrata, there was renewed evidence of that

threat on Sunday when one person was killed and seven were injured by two

shells, according to an AFP journalist in the city.

Meanwhile multiple rocket and heavy machine gunfire was heard on the plains

below the rebel enclave in the Nafusa Mountains.

Rebel commanders said the fighting centered on Bir al-Ghanam, a strategic point

on the road to the Libyan capital.

Amid the broader slowdown in fighting, an African Union panel said that Kadhafi

would not participate in peace talks, in what appeared to be a concession.

Rumours have been rife in recent days that the Libyan leader may consider

leaving Tripoli and that rebels could accept his internal exile to a remote

location.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Sunday there had been contact between

the two camps that specifically involved the fate of Kadhafi.

" I know that they covered, for example, the fate reserved for Kadhafi himself,

which is one of the central questions today..., " he told France's RTL radio.

But with judges at the International Criminal Court expected to decide Monday

whether to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for crimes

against humanity, the scope for a deal could yet narrow further.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.