Tag: Libya

LONDON - General David Petraeus, the US commander of international forces in Afghanistan, played down fears on Wednesday that military action in Libya would divert resources from the Afghan war effort. "The short answer is no," Petraeus told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think-tank in London when asked if the coalition action against Moamer Gaddafi would shift the focus from Afghanistan. "There was an examination of whether certain intelligence,

CAIRO - Libya's rebel national council based in the country's east has named Mahmoud Jabril to head an interim government and pick ministers.
Jabril is a reformer who was once involved in a project to establish a democratic state in Libya. He is the head of a crisis committee to cover military and foreign affairs.

TRIPOLI - Fighting raged between forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi and insurgents in several towns on Tuesday despite a UN-mandated no-fly zone aimed at stopping the violence.
Meanwhile, as a senior US officer said Gaddafi forces were still attacking civilians, doubts persisted over the best way to continue the campaign to stop Gaddafi, and where it was leading. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said future actions of the coalition, which began airstrikes on Saturday

LONDON - Oil prices rose by over $2 a barrel on Monday as a wave of U.N.-mandated airstrikes on Libya and proliferating unrest in the Middle East fanned concerns about oil supply from the region. Brent crude for May was up $1.80 to $115.73 a barrel by 1234 GMT after earlier trading over $116, while U.S. crude for April gained $1.81 at $102.88 a barrel.
"With the nature of the external military involvement becoming clearer, there is a further escalation of the situation, and the

BAGHDAD - Iraq said on Monday it supported international intervention in Libya, but influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr condemned it and said Western states should avoid civilian casualties.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraq supported the UN Security Council resolution that authorised the intervention, and would back any action as long as it was authorised by the United Nations.
"The Iraqi government supports the international efforts to prevent any acts of

MILAN - The legal marathon facing Silvio Berlusconi resumed on Monday when a bribery trial reopened in Milan but the Italian prime minister, due to brief the cabinet on the Libya emergency, did not appear in court. Italy's involvement in the air campaign against his former friend Muammar Gaddafi has diverted some attention from Berlusconi's legal woes but the premier is confronting court battles that have overshadowed Rome political life for months.
The "Rubygate" affair, in

TRIPOLI - US, British and French forces hammered Libya from the air and sea, prompting leader Moamer Gaddafi to warn Sunday of a long war in the Mediterranean "battlefield" as Tripoli reported dozens of deaths. However, a Libyan military spokesman later in the night announced a new ceasefire in the campaign against a military uprising.
The US military said the first stage of coalition raids under a UN Security Council remit to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya had been

President Barack Obama has left unclear the exact role it would play. Washington has F-15 and F-16 fighter jets in Sicily, while the USS Barry and the USS Stout, both destroyers equipped with sea-to-ground Tomahawk missiles, are in the Mediterranean. The USS Bataan, a helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ship, and two other vessels have also been deployed to relieve the USS Kearsarge and the transport docking ship USS Ponce in the Mediterranean. The Bataan was due to leave the state

TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi warned the West against military intervention in Libya, describing any such act as "clear aggression", a government spokesman quoted him as saying on Saturday.
"This is injustice, this is clear aggression," the spokesman, Mussa Ibrahim, quoted Gaddafi as saying in a letter addressed to France, Britain and the United Nations. "You will regret it if you take a step towards interfering in our internal affairs."
He also quoted Gaddafi as

TRIPOLI/SANAA - Muammar Gaddafi's government said it was declaring a unilateral ceasefire in its offensive to crush Libya's revolt on Friday, while Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced a state of emergency after medics said 46 people were killed when pro-regime loyalists and police opened fire on protesters in Sanaa.
Libyan government troops pounded the rebel-held western city of Misrata, killing at least 25 people including children and injuring at least 200, a doctor

LONDON - Oil rose above $116 a barrel on Friday after the United Nations authorised Western-led attacks in OPEC member Libya and tension stayed high across the oil-producing Middle East. Efforts to subdue inflation in China, the world's second biggest oil user after the United States, only briefly wiped out gains. Brent was up $1.19 at $116.09 a barrel by 1202 GMT, after earlier climbing above $117. U.S. crude for April gained $1.67 to $103.09.
Oil markets reached their highest

BERLIN - Germany abstained from voting for a U.N. Security Council resolution authorising a no-fly zone over Libya because of worries there would be civilian victims like in Iraq and Afghanistan, Berlin said on Friday. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told parliament the centre-right government was determined that German troops would not take part in a military operation in Libya, and favoured instead tougher sanctions against the Libyan leader. "Any military operation brings

BENGHAZI - Libya on Thursday warned it could target all Mediterranean air and sea traffic in the case of foreign military intervention, as world powers edged towards tough measures aimed at shutting down Moamer Gaddafi's military machine.
"Any military operation against Libya will expose all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean to danger," the official Jana news agency quoted Libya's defence ministry spokesman as saying. "And any civilian or military moving traffic will

LAHORE - Forces loyal to Moammar Gaddafi smashed through the last line of defence protecting the rebel capital of Benghazi Tuesday and now appear poised to crush the revolt as hope for international intervention wanes. Fleeing refugees confirmed the fall of Adjabiya, a strategic city that rebel leaders vowed just one day earlier would mark the bulwark of the revolution's stand again Gaddafi, came in a matter of bullet strewn hours.
As nightfall approached, anxiety gripped

CAIRO - The Arab League on Saturday said it had called on the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone in Libya, in a decision that will provide the regional support NATO has said is needed for any military action.
Libyan rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi have said a no-fly zone to ground Libyan warplanes and to prevent the moving of troops by helicopter is vital if its forces are to succeed.
"The Arab League has officially requested the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly

PARIS - Unrest in Libya has almost wiped out production in its key oil sector, slashing output by 1.4 million barrels a day to under 300,000, the head of French oil giant Total indicated. "Oil production in Libya must have fallen to between 200,000 and 300,000 barrels a day maximum," the chief executive of Total, Christophe de Margerie, told reporters in Paris. "There are about 1.4 million barrels a day less" than normal, since the start of an uprising against Libyan ruler Moamer

JEDDAH - Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said a decision to support imposing a no-fly zone over Libya was up to the Arab League, not only Gulf countries. "It is an issue that is the responsibility of the Arab League," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a press conference in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
Arab League foreign ministers will meet Saturday to discuss ways to stop Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi from bombing and strafing his own citizens who are battling the loyalist