BENGHAZI – Moamer Gaddafi and his sons appeared to be looking for a way out of the conflict in Libya, as hundreds wounded in besieged Misrata were evacuated by ship and Washington agreed to extend airstrikes into Monday. Greece’s foreign minister said after a meeting in Athens between the prime minister and a Libyan envoy that Gaddafi’s regime is “looking for a solution”.
The New York Times meanwhile reported that at least two of Gaddafi’s sons were proposing a transition to a constitutional democracy that would include their father’s removal from power. More than 250 patients were brought from Misrata to the rebel port of Benghazi on Sunday on board a Turkish aid ship, which was to pick up another 60 or so wounded people from the eastern front before steaming on to the Turkish port of Cesme.
Those on the aid ship, many torn apart by shrapnel and bullets, told of a city under lockdown that has gone weeks without electricity or running water, where snipers have emptied the centre, and mortar rounds and rockets rain down at random on residents huddled inside their homes.
Gaddafi’s forces besieging Misrata, 215 kilometres east of Tripoli, have been targeted by air strikes launched by US, British, French, Canadian, Danish and Belgian jets since March 19 under a UN mandate to use “all necessary measures” to protect civilians, but the siege has not been broken.
The US military had planned to begin withdrawing its combat jets and Tomahawk missiles from the air campaign at the weekend as NATO allies were to take the lead in bombing Gaddafi’s forces.
